A Burden to Bear
by Kayley Taylor
Summary: Sequel to Growing Up and A New Beginning. Burden, noun. That which is borne with labor or difficulty that which is grevious, wearisome, or oppressive.
1. Memories

Chapter One

Memories

**You asked for it, now here it is! No pretense is needed. If you haven't read Growing Up or A New Beginning, please read that first.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but Melissa, Kate, and any other OCs I mention.**

**All I ask for is that you enjoy this story!

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"You don't remember, do you?"

Melissa Lewes sipped a cup of coffee from a navy blue mug as she sat next to Jack. The house was sticky due to an unusually humid and warm morning, one that reminded him so strongly of the Caribbean. The windows were now closed. The gentle humming of the air conditioning could faintly be heard.

As Melissa looked at him, waiting for a response, Jack Sparrow couldn't name what it was he was supposed to remember. Did it have something to do with Amy? No...wait, was he supposed to go somewhere today?

Now he felt like a fool.

"O' course!" he fibbed, chuckling. "O' course I remember."

Melissa had her feet propped up on the coffee table. Her pajama shorts revealed legs that had been slimmed and toned from running. He was surprised at how hard she was working and determined to lose the weight she gained before giving birth to Amy.

Not that Jack had minded at all about the clothing. Summer was now here, and after a long winter, fall, and spring, Jack was more than ready to see her shed some layers.

"Really."

It was more of a statement, as if Melissa was unconvinced that he remembered, which Jack was sure that she was.

"What are you supposed to remember?"

Oh, bugger. Now she was going to start asking more questions. She always was an inquisitive thing.

"It's June 1," she hinted.

Double bugger.

"One year ago today we met," she said.

It couldn't be one year, could it? Looking at Melissa, she was the same girl, only a bit..._enhanced_ in certain aspects. The days where he could tease her about being flat chested were temporarily gone, thanks to Amy. Her personality had also changed. Twelve months ago, she was a naïve, innocent eighteen-year-old who looked at the world through rose-colored glasses. Now the nineteen-year-old saw things for what they were and managed to remain a sweet person.

Most of the time.

"I knew that!" Jack said.

Jack wondered why dates were so important to women. Why did most throw a fit if they didn't remember birthdays or certain anniversaries?

Melissa laughed. "I'm sure you did, pirate."

Pirate. She hadn't called him that for a while.

"A year ago to the minute."

He looked at the clock. It read 7:45. How on earth did she remember the _minute_?

"I think back at how my life has changed because of you," she said.

"Don't act like it's a death sentence, love," he joked, noting her serious tone.

"This is important, Jack!" she said, her blue eyes smiling. "Without you, we never would have had Amy."

Jack looked at Amy, who was in her swing next to Melissa. Her brown eyes were wide, looking at her parents, who were conversing.

"Ah, yes," Jack grinned. "The Sea Turtle."

Melissa smiled, too, and looked at their daughter. "Hard to believe that out of anyone I've met, you've given me my biggest blessing."

* * *

Kate Turner woke up that morning with her head on her husband's chest. She felt a hand of his on the small of her back, holding her close. Kate could hear the beating of his heart. 

She had waited to mentally celebrate the one year anniversary of her and Will's first encounter for days. Now it was here.

She found it hard to believe she had known this man for but a year's time. It seemed like they had known each other for ten years, instead of only one.

In a way, they had.

"Good morning," she murmured, laying a soft kiss on his chest.

Kate had no other desire than to lay in Will's arms all day. The world could wait.

"Good morning, my love," he said softly.

My love. She had always been his one and only love.

"One year ago today we first met."

Will smiled. She couldn't help but fall more in love each time he smiled at her. "How could I forget, Mrs. Turner?"

Even nine months after their wedding, a smile came upon her face each time that he called her that.

"I love you," she whispered into his ear.

He ran a hand through her chocolate brown hair. "I could say that, my words don't do justice."

She placed her lips so close to his they were barely touching. "Then show me."

* * *

Jack reached into the freezer and pulled out a frozen pizza that evening for dinner. He preheated the oven and began to remove the wrapping. 

"Into the Night" was playing on the radio. After all the times that Melissa had made Jack listen to it all theme months, it was safe to say that he was throughly sick of the song. It seemed that Melissa wasn't.

"A-yo-a-yo-a-yo-a," Melissa sang, putting the now empty baby bottle by the sink while carrying Amy. Melissa had just finished feeding her. "What's for dinner?" she asked, leaning against the counter.

"Pizza. I do believe ya burned this doughy, tomatoey thing last year fer th' first dinner."

"You remember," she said, somewhat surprised.

"O' course I do. I remember that was th' day I realized that _you_ could not cook."

She glared at him. "Count yourself lucky I don't have Amy in my hands."

He would.

* * *

Kate picked up a blue notebook of her's that evening to start making a list of what to bring to Jack and Melissa's house. It was a habit of her's – she knew that she would otherwise forget. 

They would be leaving June 12 for a few days to see how Amy had grown from the days-old girl they had seen in March, as well as for Father's Day. Both planned to see their parents, and at the Sims household, it would be a Mother's Day celebration, as well. Kate was excited to see her parents again, as well as Bootstrap. She was sure that Will was excited to see his father, as well.

Flipping through the notebook to find a blank page, she saw ten names on a list in two different columns. She recognized these. She looked up at Will, who was sitting next to her.

"Will!" Kate said. "Look!"

Will looked away from _60 Minutes_ to see what Kate held in her hands.

"William, Ethan, Caleb, Noah, Jacob...Abigail, Olivia, Hannah, Hailey, Emily..." he said to himself. He looked at Kate and smiled. "How did you find these?"

"It was luck. I was just looking for a piece of paper."

She remembered that they had made these one summer night when they were engaged and had Willy – Baby Think it Over. That was the night she realized that she found out that she wanted children sooner than she had planned with Will.

"If we had to choose right now," Kate said, pointing to the list, "what name would you choose for a boy and a girl?"

"Ah," he smirked. "I would choose William for a boy after his grandfather, and for a girl, Emily. What about you?

She over the list. "William, without a doubt. After his father, of course."

He smirked. Their views of who he would be named after differed.

"And for a girl, Abigail."

Kate began to want what Melissa had. She began to yearn for a child, much like Will had wanted in the beginning of their engagement. Had her job not called her every which way, she might have conceived already.

_One day_, she thought silently.

* * *

**Fluffy beginning. Next chapter has a Lord Cutler Beckett in it...**

**Beckett: It's _Doctor_! Doctor Beckett! I didn't go to school for four years to be called a bloody Lord!**

**Me: You should be grateful you're in this. I can write you out as easily as I wrote you in!**


	2. Parlay

Chapter Two

Parlay

**I thought that the "Parlay" song on the AWE soundtrack fit this chapter wonderfully.**

**Sorry for the short chapter. They will get longer, as you know.**

**Thank you so much for the reviews! A slice of French silk pie to all of you who reviewed! They make my day!

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It was now four days before the Turners' arrival. Melissa was growing eager to see her best friend and someone who she considered to be her brother-in-law. She couldn't wait for them to see how big Amy had grown in only three months.

Everything was a joy with her daughter. Melissa took Amy with her everywhere with her – even going to the store with her became the highlight of her day.

"You're so big!" Melissa said to Amy while putting her in her crib.

Melissa looked at the skull romper on Amy. Melissa remembered when she and Jack had used their babyGap gift certificate one weekend in January. Jack had insisted that they get that. Melissa worried how many pirate things would be bought for her in the coming years.

"Your father is going to turn you into a pirate, I swear," she said to herself.

Melissa turned on the Mozart CD and pulled the curtains shut. The summer evening made the room have a glow that she knew would lull Amy to sleep along with Mozart, as well as the mobile above her crib.

"See you in a few hours," Melissa said, leaving the room.

* * *

Cutler Beckett looked at the phone he held in his hands and debated whether or not to dial ten numbers.

They weren't hard by any means. They were quite simple. He had them memorized. Beckett could dial them in his sleep.

Then why was it so hard to bring himself to dial them?

Because he knew he would be rejected. If it was one thing Cutler Beckett could not take, it was rejection and failure – which he was sure that he would get if he dialed those ten numbers that belonged to Melissa Lewes.

What he didn't understand was _why_ he would be rejected. He was wealthy, he had a wonderful job, he could please her in any way that she needed to. The only thing he wouldn't do for her was help raise Sparrow's child. Beckett had been enemies with Jack for too long to take care of his offspring. Although, it would be unlikely to find someone to have a child when he was this much into adulthood already. The child could take his name if he and Melissa stayed together long enough. (It would be difficult to explain to it one day why the child didn't look like him, though.)

Perhaps he wouldn't be rejected, he mused as he looked at the phone. Perhaps she would be grateful that he called and save her from a life of Sparrow.

He was going to call her. One last talk to say anything and everything to have her be on his side.

He dialed her phone number and heard the line once.

Beckett looked out the window of his town home and saw a child on a red tricycle going up and down the street with his mother.

The line rang twice.

He wondered when she was going to answer. Was she choosing not to answer? The wench! Granted, it had been six months since they last spoke – and not on the friendliest of terms, either.

The line ran for a third time.

"Hello?" Melissa asked.

Melissa's voice was like a breath of fresh air after being trapped underwater. He was finally walking to the woman he longed for every night.

"Good evening, Melissa," Beckett said.

He could imagine her blinking and freezing in surprise at his voice. It would have been a (pleasant) surprise if he had called her.

"Hi, Beckett," she said hesitantly. "What's going on?"

To him it almost sounded like he didn't want to talk to her. What an interesting thing.

"It's been six months since we spoke," he carefully. If he mis-worded even the slightest thing, there was a very good possibility that she would hang up right there. "I wanted to see how you and your child were doing."

He was asking about the wellbeing of her child, didn't that give him an advantage?

"Amy's doing wonderful," she said.

Amy. That was Jack's child's name. He half expected it to be Pearl.

"As am I," she said.

She was doing wonderful – did that mean with Jack or the child?

"How's being a mother?" he asked.

"It's good. Exhausting, but I'm taking advantage of every minute. I don't know when I'll have these moments again."

_It would be a phone call away_, he thought.

"Really, though," she said. "Why are you calling?"

She had grown smarter – she was obviously no longer a naïve thing that could be taken advantage of. Who was he to turn down a challenge?

In a way, this reminded him of a parlay between two pirates. They were both negotiating – most likely, on her part, doing what she would do to stay out of his life. On her part, it would be trying to keep her in his.

"One last time," he said. "I will not give you this proposal again, dear. Take the child and live with me. I can afford to take care of one."

There was a silence on the other line. Was that of anger, or pondering the proposal?

"What is _wrong_ with you?" she said, her voice harder than a stone.

He guessed the silence was out of anger.

"Sparrow could never raise a child the way you would want a father to, dear --"

"Who are you to say that Jack can't raise a child?" she said, anger rising in her voice. "You've never seen him when he gets up in the middle of the night to take care of Amy! Do you know what you care about Cutler Beckett? Manipulation. You will do everything in your power to get what it is if you want, even if it means telling me a blatant lie that you know nothing about."

She truly _was_ different. Melissa was practically a mouse when they had been together before, how she was as sharp as a sword.

Why did it make him want her all the more?

"If Sparrow is anything like the _Captain_ you and I are both familiar with, he will do nothing but use you until you're of no further profit to him," he said. "And when could that be, pray tell? It seems you've satisfied him already."

"Don't you _dare_ say that!"

He could barely finish his sentence before she said that.

"I've always been here for you. I've made myself available to you because we know the day will come when he does see that you're of no profit to him."

He would say whatever he had to to have her. It wasn't a lie that he was sure he was using her for something – this was Sparrow, it must be something. All was fair in love and war, and this was love _and_ war.

"I've chosen a side, Melissa. It's time you've made your's. It had best not be with the one who is using you."

"Don't worry," she said. "It isn't."

He was so surprised that he barely registered the click on the other line. That wench thought that he was using her?! What had Sparrow been telling her? Unless...

No. She could not possibly love that man – that _pirate_. He wouldn't let himself think of that.

Perhaps she didn't think they were right for each other. He hardly could see from her point of view, he thought they would be a perfect match. She was the confused one that needed someone to love her, and he was the one that could give her that love and security.

Beckett was surprised that he felt the tiniest bit hurt when she had said those four words. He had wanted so badly for them to be together.

Why was Sparrow so much better than him?

* * *

Melissa was nothing short of furious as she hung up with Beckett that evening. He had, for the umpteenth time, tried to win her back – this time by dishonorable means.

She wasn't sure why she was so angry at having him question Jack's parenting skills. Perhaps it was because he was blatantly lying to her and saying anything to convince her.

Really, had she been that naïve before that she would have believed that?

She was furious at herself for ever speaking to him. She was furious for ever making idle talk with him in the plane and going to Olive Garden with him.

"This is not your fault," she told herself quietly, pacing the spare bedroom, arms crossed.

It wasn't. This was Beckett's fault for being infatuated with her and not knowing that "no" meant "no".

Melissa hated admitting the second reason why she hung up on him: she still loved Jack. She hated herself for that. Every day she wished that she didn't. It was beginning to eat at her. She had loved him for three months undoubtedly.

Melissa had never told him because she knew that he didn't feel the same way. He would never stay with one woman, much less the two of them getting back together.

She knew that the worst kind of missing someone was not the distance between you and the one you loved. It was when you were sitting next to the person and knew you could never have them that she couldn't handle.

Defeated, she sighed, uncrossed her arms, and walked out of the room.


	3. Picture

Chapter Three

Picture

**Thank you for the reviews! Oreos to reviewers!

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Thursday was here. Melissa was ecstatic to see Kate and Will again. All day at work, she thought about them. She was excited for them to see how big Amy had gotten over the past few months.

Amy was with no doubt the pride and joy in her life. She loved how people looked at Amy with a smile while they went through the store or even a walk in her stroller through the neighborhood.

She was grateful that Janice, their neighbor, had accepted to watch Amy through the day. She was a stay-at-home mother with a boy that was two and said that she wouldn't mind in the least if Melissa left Amy with her during the day.

Fifteen minutes before they arrived via taxi from the airport, Melissa tidied up the house and talked to Amy. Jack began fixing something up for dinner. She had tried to focus her attention away from Jack since the talk with Beckett on Sunday. If possible, she was more confused than before. She wondered if she could settle for Beckett. Neither she or Jack were stupid: she would not have sex with Jack. She doubted that he would stay in a relationship with a woman if that wasn't involved.

She and Beckett were so...awkward, though. They were complete opposites. Opposites could attract easily, though. She and Jack were living proof of that.

No. She would not settle for Beckett. He was using manipulation now. Who knew what he could manipulate her with if they began dating.

It would be easier if Jack could see someone else. She was desperate for him to see someone else. That way she would feel less tempted to tell him her feelings. Life could go on for them. He could see someone that he was happy with in his own way, and she could see someone who would love to be around her and Amy.

"I'm sure that Auntie Kate and Uncle Will are excited to see you," she said to Amy, rearranging the candles on the coffee table. "You've gotten so big."

"I swear that ye've talked t' th' Sea Turtle more t' me t'day than ya 'ave with me this whole week," Jack joked as he stirred the spaghetti sauce.

Melissa closed her eyes. She was thankful that her back was to him.

She wondered if she was getting weaker. She wanted something she knew that she would never have, not under the conditions she wanted. Just at his comment, she felt like her heart was being put in a vice.

"If I need t' take a shower, ya could ask nicely, love," he continued.

"It's nothing," she said, running a hand though her hair. She needed to change the subject to something, anything. "How's work going?"

"Superb!" he said. "There's a girl at work I've been flirtin' with. Kelly."

Melissa's heart was now being squeezed by the vice so hard she was sure it would break into a million pieces.

If this is what she wanted, then why didn't she feel happy?

Because someone was about to take one of the only things that made her happy in life.

What was the point of having someone if they weren't happy with you? Melissa wanted nothing more for him to be happy, and it seemed that he was going to be happy with Kelly.

"That's great," she said, finding her voice. "When are you going to meet up outside of work?"

"We already would 'ave, but she lives with 'er parents."

He wasn't lusting after a minor, was he?

"Fear not, she's eighteen. Just doin' a summer job betwixt school 'n' college."

Eighteen. She was eighteen when Jack lusted after her.

"I wish you luck," she said.

She was grateful that Kate was going to be here soon. It was a night where she needed to cry to her best friend. Surely Kate would tell her what to do.

"I'd say thank ya, but I won't need any," he grinned.

_You really don't have a heart_, she fumed. _You're talking about your current love interest with your ex love interest, who you don't even have the slightest idea is still in love with you. You would, though, if, for once you got your head out of your --_

"Any new gents that need my approvin'?" he asked, snapping her out of her mental rant.

_You_, she thought. _You think very highly of yourself, that should be no problem at all._

"No," she said.

"We need t' get ya one!" he said gleefully. His voice made her crack a smile despite the situation, even if tears were starting to form in her eyes and a lump had formed in her throat.

"We'll go t' a nightclub! I'll come with ya 'n' we'll hunt one down t'gether."

"You make us sound like we're animals hunting for prey," she chuckled.

"They could put us on th' Discovery Channel!" he said. "Our very own show!"

She blinked back her tears to see Jack taking a mock camera-shot with his fingers at her, like a director musing about his latest film. "Think about it: _Melissa and Her Many Men_."

"Or just send the same concept to ABC and they can air another season of _The Bachelorette_."

"They do have a rather good survival rate," he said, still on the concept of animals. "1-1. Better than the 0-83 with _The Bachelor_."

Melissa envied what Kelly would have. Jack had so suddenly become part of her life last year. They shared too many things over the past year to let him go.

She hated that she couldn't be happy with anything.

After a few minutes, she heard the doorbell ring. Excited, she stood up and answered the door to see Kate and Will.

"Hey!" Kate said, coming into the house and pulling her into a hug, then pulled away to examine her. "Wow, you look amazing for three months after Amy."

"I try," Melissa joked.

Kate went off to go greet Jack, while she said hello to Will.

"It's wonderful to see you again, Melissa," Will said, pulling her into a hug.

She was reminded how short she was next to him. He was about eight inches taller than her.

Melissa hugged him back. "You, too."

"How are you and Amy?" he asked.

"Wonderful," she responded.

"Oh, 'n' I'm fine, too, William," Jack said, an arm around Kate's waist from the lingering hug.

"I was about to ask you."

Seeing innocent Will and witty Jack together was something that she missed seeing.

Kate went to go see Amy, who was in a swing by the coffee table. Her eyes lit up as she got on Amy's level.

"You've gotten so big!" Kate said to Amy.

Amy looked confused, most likely thinking "Who are _you_?"

"Hasn't she, though?" Melissa asked. "It's amazing how fast she's growing."

"It is," Will said, walking to his wife and stooping down to Amy's level, as well.

Melissa couldn't help but feel envious at what they had. They were the epitome of a perfect couple, ever the ones with a smile on their face that could work out anything between them.

The vice gripped her heart tighter the longer she looked at them.

She would have to talk to Kate about this tonight. Melissa was sure Kate would listen with an open mind (and open arms).

"Sit down, sit down," she said to everyone. "Let's catch up."

"Because Melissa's sleep depravity has caused her to forget everything I've written to her in those e-mails," Kate joked.

Kate sat on the sofa between Melissa and Will. Jack took the lounge as the sauce simmered.

"You two first," Melissa said. "It's been Amy, Amy, Amy for us."

"Well...we have an announcement," Kate began, grinning madly, sneaking a glance at Will.

_You're pregnant!_ Melissa thought joyfully. _This is wonderful! Then Amy and Baby Turner can have play dates when you visit!_

"I'm going off birth control next month!" she said, an unwipable grin stuck like glue on her face.

Kate seemed ecstatic – quite the comparison at the first mention of children that she had with Jack. Come to think of it, that was when she found out that she was pregnant.

"Congratulations!" Melissa said, truly happy for her. "What about your job, though? That's why you moved to New York, so you could travel the world."

"I made a choice," she said. "We're making great money working for Anthropologie. I can do whatever I'll be able to, as long as it's in New York. We've been talking for months about kids and decided, 'Why not now?'"

Kate was crazy – crazy in love. They had fought just a year ago about kids, now she was going to have them at nineteen or twenty?

_Whatever makes you happy,_ she thought.

"Name th' boy Jack," Jack said, pointing to himself.

"I'm sure Jack isn't high on their list of favorite names," Melissa said to Jack.

"But it _is_ on there," he said.

"It's going to be William James after his father and grandfather," Kate said.

"You've already picked out _names_?" Jack asked.

"Only if it's a boy," Will said. "We don't want to get ahead of ourselves."

_I hate to tell you, but I think you are_, Melissa thought.

"Congratulations, you guys," Melissa smiled. "I want a phone call when you find out, not an e-mail."

"Alright," Kate agreed with a smile. "I can compromise. What about you two? There has to be _something_ other than Amy."

Bringing the attention back to their life made her focus on what she had learned a few minutes ago. That was the last thing she wanted to talk about right now.

"Nothing, really," Melissa insisted. "We've just been figuring out parenting. Oh, speaking of parenting – you can take home the baby books I read when I was pregnant with Amy. I won't be needing them for a while."

Will looked confused. Was her discomfort that easy to pick up on? Kate, as well, looked at her for a moment.

"Sure," she said.

* * *

After a light-hearted dinner and putting Amy to bed, Kate pulled aside a blank Melissa into the guest bedroom. Kate shut the door behind her and pulled Melissa to sit on the foot of the bed next to her.

"What is it?" Kate asked. "You haven't been yourself since Will and I got here."

"It's nothing," Melissa said.

Even if she was an Academy Award winner, Kate wouldn't believe her.

Melissa sighed and laid down on the bed. "It's everything. I'm so confused."

"Confused with what?" Kate asked, her hands folded on her stomach.

"Jack."

That one word explained it all. Jack was enough to confuse anyone, much less an ex.

"Is that why you gave Amy his last name?" Kate asked.

"Yes," Melissa admitted.

"How long had you been planning it?"

"For a few months."

Melissa fingered the mother-and-child necklace, which was a pearl laced onto a pink cord. Kate had to give Jack credit for finding an unconventional one.

"I couldn't tell you," Melissa said. "I thought that you would see me as someone who wasn't strong enough to walk away from the past."

"I would never think that, Melissa. I understand why you gave Amy his name."

Melissa nodded. Kate could see tears starting to form in her eyes.

"Kate?" Melissa asked.

"Hmm?"

"I love him," Melissa said softly.

It didn't surprise Kate that Melissa loved Jack still. Why else would she have given Amy his last name? It worried her that she would get her heart broken again, though.

"I know he'll never take me back," Melissa said, the sadness creeping in her voice. "Jack doesn't belong with a girl like me."

Jack was yet again causing so much pain for her. There were times where Kate despised Jack Sparrow – this was one of those times.

Kate didn't know what to say to make Melissa feel better. She had never been this in love with someone. She didn't know if things would work out between those two. They were opposites, but somehow they seemed to work so well together.

Or perhaps they were better off friends.

"You have to tell him," Kate said. "You're going to get nowhere if you don't tell him."

"Some of don't have the courage you do, Kate."

She knew that if Melissa wanted to walk right up to Jack and say that she still had feelings for him, she could do it.

"There's someone else," Melissa said.

"Is he seeing her?"

"No, they're flirting. Kelly. She's from work. He told me right before you got here."

Now Kate understood.

"That was the reason for all the..." Kate stared blankly at the ceiling.

"Yeah." Melissa drew her lips into a thin line. "And because I love him, I want him to be happy, but there's nothing more that wants him all to myself."

Kate knew a thing or two about that from that last summer with Will.

"I need to tell him for my sake," she said. "I can't have him see someone else without telling him that I love him."

Melissa had never been this situation before. She had never been with a guy who wanted to leave, yet she was unwilling to let him go. Kate knew how much she loved him.

"Why are you scared to tell him?" Kate asked.

"Because not knowing what's going to happen terrifies me." Melissa sighed. "He's going to move on. And I'm happy for him that he's going to find someone that he likes. But that just leaves me by myself."

"There's always Beckett," Kate teased.

Melissa shrugged and was silent.

"Will and I can leave the house for a night so you and Jack can figure out where you stand. I doubt that you want us here while you hash things out. We can go stay at Bootstrap's or my parents for the night."

Melissa nodded. "That sounds good."

Melissa sat up. Kate could practically see the light bulb turning on over her head.

"Sunday," Melissa said.

"What about Sunday?" Kate inquired, sitting up.

"I'm telling him Sunday. It'll give me a few days to prepare what I have to say."

"I don't know why you can't be like me and tell him now."

"Because that is part of my charm," she smiled.

* * *

The days passed by. It was Saturday now. Melissa wanted tomorrow to come so she could tell Jack how she felt, but she was still terrified. She had braced herself for the rejection. It was inevitable, but it didn't make it any easier for her. She could hardly look at Jack without fear running through her.

On Saturday afternoon, Will pulled his camera out, much to Melissa's hatred. She hated having her pictures.

"Would you like some pictures?" Will asked. "You, Amy, and Jack, perhaps?"

_Because we're the epitome of a perfect family_, she thought, but accepted his offer anyway.

She got a few pictures with her and Amy with her, her brown eyes staring at the camera like saucers. Melissa even took over the picture-taking and took one of her three-month-old smiling on their bed. It warmed her heart each time her daughter smiled. She had the most adorable smile that she had ever seen on a baby.

Will took a few pictures of Jack with his daughter, smiling like a proud papa. After encouragement from Will (he said it would be a "wonderful family picture for a frame" -- they would never be a family), Will took a few pictures with the three, Amy sitting between Jack and Melissa in their laps.

Kate took a few pictures with Melissa. She felt lightened when Kate was with her. Boys came and went, but best friends stayed.

Melissa reviewed the pictures and found herself smiling at the later ones with Amy and Kate. The ones with Jack were staged – it was something that would never be. She wondered why she was even going to tell him tomorrow night that she loved him.

She figured they needed to have some sense of honesty. Too many secrets had been kept between the two of them the past year. Starting with the fact that she still loved him was a start.

* * *

**And I leave you at a cliffhanger. That's right, next chapter's Sunday! Are you ready, Melissa?**

**Melissa: No, not really...**

**Me: You will be. Don't worry.**

**Melissa: -gulp-**


	4. Sunday

Chapter Four

Sunday

**Just a note, I did not spell "Everytime" wrong. That's why the song title is spelled. LOL.**

**Thank you so much for the lovely reviews!

* * *

**

Melissa looked on with sadness as Jack held Amy on Sunday. Despite the fact that it had been six months to the day since her separation from her parents, it didn't make Father's Day any easier. She missed her parents so much some days. Melissa wondered how heartless they were. It was three months since Amy was born and they weren't trying to make amends?

Amy had a good father. He would stay in her life, even if this was quite possibly the last Father's Day they would spend together in this house. She had a feeling that when he found a love interest that had a house of her own, he would move in with her. When they would break up, who would he be staying with? Their daughter and Melissa.

When the Turners were visiting Kate's parents, she moved through the house uneasily. Kate had been her security blanket, the one thing that she felt kept her safe and could distract her. Now it was just her, Amy, and Jack.

Melissa vaguely remembered that a year ago today the four of them went up to the cabin. That had been one of the worst mistakes she had made by having her and Jack go to Kate's uncle's cabin (who she playfully thought of as Commodore Sims). That weekend had caused so much heartache for everyone except Jack – the only thing he was upset over was that he didn't have a chance to have his way with Kate.

Looking back, she thought it was stupid that she ever forgave Jack. He was nothing but trouble, but she was too stupid to realize that. Without forgiveness, though, Amy would never have been born.

She had never thought about what would happen if she traded Jack for Will with Kate. A what-if was something that would never happen, thus a pointless question. Kate would never have gotten married to Will (_that _never happening was hard to imagine), and Melissa would never have learned as much as she did without Jack.

Kate and Will came back around 4:00 for her parents' house. Melissa realized that she was getting a headache. She checked the medicine cabinet, then realized that she had no aspirin.

_Wonderful_, she thought.

"Kate, do you have any aspirin with you?" Melissa asked.

"Yeah," Kate said, going into her bag and pulling two out. "Headache?"

"From stress."

Melissa knew the cure for anxiety: a good run. After the aspirin settled in and the headache was gone, she laced up her tennis shoes and put her iPod on shuffle and pulled Kate aside before leaving.

"You're not leaving until I get back, are you?" Melissa asked.

"No," Kate said. "We have to call my parents for a ride, anyway."

Good point, they had no car. Melissa had to go to work tomorrow, anyway.

"Okay. I'll talk to you later." Melissa began to go down the stairs when Kate called after her.

"Melissa?" Kate said.

Melissa turned around.

"Good luck."

Melissa nodded, a small smile creeping onto her face. "Thank you."

Kate smiled back. "Love you, Melrose."

Melissa knew why Kate had said that: even if Jack didn't have the same feelings towards her, Kate always would.

"Love you, too, Katie."

She walked down the stairs and saw Jack and Will were talking about sports.

_Typical_, she thought with an eye roll.

"I'll be back in about half an hour," Melissa said. "Jack...I want to talk with you when I get back."

"Marvelous," Jack said. "I'll look forward t' it."

_You wouldn't if you knew what the topic is_, Melissa thought.

Melissa smiled and went out the door. Her feet met the pavement in time with the quick-tempo song on her iPod.

* * *

It was now just Jack, Kate, and Will in the living room. Kate was sitting between the two men, legs crossed at the knees. They had now stopped talking about the upcoming Red Sox and Yankees game (she didn't pay attention to who took what side – she hated sports).

"'Ow did Mama 'n' Papa Sims react t' the news that their little girl is goin' t' expect a little one in the near future?" Jack grinned.

_Aren't you just hilarious_, Kate thought sarcastically.

"Her parents were quite happy with the news --" Will began.

"My mom started crying," Kate interrupted. "Does anyone realize that I don't have a bun in the oven yet?"

"But th' dough for the bread is out," Jack pointed out.

Kate sat back and crossed her arms, frustrated with Jack's annoying metaphors.

* * *

The second song that came on Melissa's iPod was "Everytime" by Britney Spears. She realized, with a tinge of sadness, how well the song fit her feelings towards Jack.

_Notice me_

_Take my hand_

_Why are we_

_Strangers when_

_Our love is strong?_

_Why carry on without me?_

_Every time I try to fly_

_I fall without my wings_

_I feel so small_

_I guess I need you, baby_

_And every time I see you in my dreams_

_I see your face, it's haunting me,_

_I guess I need you, baby._

Why _did_ they seem like strangers now?

She needed to think about how to say that she loved Jack. Of course, she would have to take a shower first – no guy would say that she loved her after a run.

_Jack, I love you._

His response? _That's interestin'._

No. Too forward.

_I think we should try to make things work one more time. For Amy._

His response? _Single parents make it work all the time._

This was going to be harder than it seemed. Maybe she didn't have to tell him. It could be her secret.

No. She was not going to back out! She was going to tell him so that she could have a clear conscience.

_Telling you that we were done was the worst mistake of my life. It was out of impulse, I was angry, and I've regretted it for ten months. Jack, I still love you. I always have and I always will._

There. That would do. Non-committal, just something to let her feelings out. He could take that and run with it.

* * *

Cutler Beckett was not a jealous man. He only knew what he wanted, and would do anything to get it.

Melissa Lewes, on the other hand, did not want him. He was letting that settle in. Because he was having strong feelings towards her, he did not want to let her go to Sparrow.

Beckett knew that if you loved something, you let it go. But why would he let Melissa go to Sparrow and have her continue to be his whore? She deserved better than Sparrow.

Beckett had decided to look around Champlin one evening. He happened to find a group of town homes by Target. By them was a pond with ducks in it. It was a beautiful area, he noted as he drove by it.

He saw a short blonde with her hair pulled back running the same direction that he was driving. He would recognize that woman anywhere, even if she was twenty pounds lighter now. It was Melissa.

All the emotions from last Sunday came surging back to him, how she all but said she was going back to Sparrow. Couldn't she see that she was making the worst decision of her life?

There was a difference between him and Sparrow. Sparrow dropped things that were of no further profit to him like a bad habit. Beckett, on the other hand, got rid of things that were a threat to him.

Melissa was a threat to his happiness.

His heart pounded in his chest as he sped up. He gripped the wheel in anger as he thought about what she said on Friday.

_You'll do everything in your power to get what is you want._

All he wanted right now was for Melissa to be gone.

He closed his eyes as the front of the car struck her. He wasn't sure how fast he was going when he hit her. It felt like the world was racing by him, yet it felt like everything was happening in slow motion. Her body forcefully hit the pavement.

It took him a moment to realize what he had done. He had just hit Melissa Lewes, a woman once so important to him.

This was not an accident, and neither was he going to prison for this. She was a threat that needed to be taken care of.

Beckett sped off. He wasn't sure if he ran over her in the process of speeding away.

He could see in his rear view mirror that a woman came running out of the house.

Beckett turned the first corner that he could find. If he was caught, he could go to prison for God knew how long. He had injured, perhaps even killed Melissa.

Why was he feeling sick with what he did? He had been responsible for many deaths before. He had no issue sentencing those engaged in piracy to hang by the noose until death or getting rid of those who were a threat to him. That _was_ how he earned the title of Lord, after all.

Why did this one feel so different?

He had to remind himself that she was not dead yet.

_Go_, he thought. _Go home. Go to work tomorrow and act as if nothing happened. No one will suspect unless you give them a reason to._

Why would he?

* * *

"I hear sirens," Will said.

"That's the first time we've heard them since we got here," Kate said to Jack. "There are a lot more sirens in New York."

"Troublemakers o'er there, eh?" Jack teased.

"To be fair, we have a larger population than a town of 20,000," she said.

Jack shrugged. Kate knew that he wasn't fond of when she corrected him.

The sirens had stopped. They sounded like they were in the neighborhood.

"Domestic," Jack guessed.

"No, they sounded like ambulance sirens," she said. "Do you have any elderly neighbors around here? Maybe they fell."

Jack shrugged again. It obviously didn't matter to him what happened.

A few minutes later, she heard the doorbell ring. Kate frowned in confusion. He wasn't expecting any guests, was he? Her parents weren't going to pick her and Will up for Bootstrap's until they called.

At the door was a bald, uniformed officer with a stony expression. Kate wondered what Jack had done illegal now.

She vaguely wondered if the sirens had anything to do with a cop being here.

"Evenin', officer," Jack grinned. "'Ow may I be o' 'ssistance?"

"Good evening," the officer said. Kate noticed he had a deep voice. "Does a Melissa Lewes live here, by chance?"

The sirens had something to do with Melissa. They were ones that belonged to an ambulance. How could she possibly have hurt herself running?

Someone hadn't been responsible, had they?

"Matter o' fact, she does!" Jack said. "Girl went out runnin'."

"Yes, we're aware of that," the officer said.

How would they know?

"May I come in for a moment?" the officer asked.

Jack stepped aside. The officer came in the house and stood in front of the couch. Jack returned to his seat next to her. She vaguely felt Will holding her hand.

"I'm terribly sorry to deliver the news, but it seems that Melissa was injured while she was out."

Injured? How could that be? She was by herself for no more than five minutes, how the hell could she be "injured"?

"What do you mean by that?" Kate said.

"She was hit by a car."

The blood in Kate's veins ran cold. Who could possibly run over her?!

Those were just words that couldn't possibly have anything to do with Melissa. Someone else had the tragedy of being run over, not Melissa!

Kate found herself too shocked to cry. A cop couldn't be here telling them this.

"Is she alive?" Jack asked.

"Yes," the officer said calmly.

Kate thanked God. She would not will her friend to die.

"The good news is she's in an ambulance right now. She's being taken to the hospital as we speak. She will get all the medical attention she needs. The bad news is that there is a chance she might not survive. It seems the car that hit her was going much faster than the speed limit for a neighborhood. At the site, they couldn't tell how much blood she had lost."

Kate's world came crashing down at that moment. Melissa could not die. She had Amy to take care of. She still had to tell Jack that she loved him!

"What hospital?" Will asked.

"Alina."

Alina. That was where Amy was born.

"Get up, Jack," Kate said. "We're going there."

"What 'bout Amy?" Jack asked.

Shit. They wouldn't know how long they would be there, they couldn't take Amy with.

"Give her to Janice," she said. "We'll start the car."

_Don't you _dare_ die, Melissa Lewes_, Kate thought as Jack picked Amy up and put her in her carrier. _Don't you dare_.

* * *

Jack was surprised at what had happened in the last minute. He had received news that Melissa had been hit by a car while out running.

Come to think of it, surprised was a gross understatement. He so shocked he felt like he got the wind knocked out of him.

Who would hurt Melissa? She didn't have any enemies. It could have just been an accident.

Who would do a hit-and-run if it wasn't an accident, though?

Now Melissa's life was at risk because of someone that wanted to take an innocent life.

He knew Melissa could not die. This was the girl that separated herself from her parents because of her child, the girl that went through birth without an epidural, the girl that had so much to live for.

Her time was not now. She was not meant to die so young. She was nineteen, she was still a child!

Jack was never a religious person, but now wouldn't be a bad time to start praying. Melissa would need all the help she could get.

* * *

**Well. Is the shock settling in yet? No, you say?**

**-Hides under covers so reviewers don't attack-**


	5. Melissa

Chapter Five

Melissa

* * *

Jack, Kate and Will were sitting wordlessly in the waiting area of the emergency room. Kate wasn't sure what time it was. Melissa had left for her run at 5:00 or so. About fifteen minutes after she left, the officer had come to their door.

She couldn't tell if they had been in the waiting area for a minute or an hour. Time was only a label on a package that she couldn't figure out how to open.

She stared numbly ahead and faintly felt Will's arm around her shoulder, pulling her close. Kate still had a hard time believing that Melissa was hit by a car. She had never had anyone close to her die. A few relatives who she met once or twice had passed, but no one that she truly loved. Her experience with death would _not_ start with her best friend.

She imagined what the doctors were doing to Melissa right now. Were they trying to get more blood in her and were assessing the damages, doing what they could to fix her, or had they already pronounced her dead?

Dead. Melissa. That didn't seem right. Someone so vibrant and young did not die at nineteen.

_Don't think like that_, she scolded. _She's not dead yet. She'll be fine._

Even the officer had said that the paramedics didn't know how much blood Melissa had lost at the site. Maybe all she had was a concussion. She could be jumping too easily to conclusions and fearing that something more serious had happened.

That was difficult not to do, though, considering your best friend of thirteen years was just hit by a car and so many questions were unanswered.

She could be in a coma that she would wake up from in a few days. That wouldn't be horrible – she'd recover and still be alive.

Being hit could have paralyzed her if she landed the wrong way. How would she take care of Amy if she was in a wheelchair? Her whole life would change. She would have to move to a one level house and Jack would have to have primary custody of Amy while she was young if he moved out.

Then there was the last option, which Kate would not dare to think about. She was not planning Melissa's funeral at nineteen.

She would find who did this. They would pay dearly.

_Our friendship started in the most bizarre way, and it's going to take something equally as bizarre to end it._

Kate remembered Melissa had said that one day last summer when they were patching things up after an argument.

_Anything but death_, she prayed.

* * *

The first thing that Cutler Beckett did when he got home was turn on the local news. He needed to see if there was any news about a hit-and-run in Champlin.

Melissa hadn't left his mind since the hit-and-run. He wondered if she was at the hospital yet. Was she dead or alive? Had the woman that was running out of the house seen his license plate?

"We have breaking news to report to you this evening," a blonde on channel four said. "There was a hit-and-run at around 5:00 this evening on the 3200 block of Zealand Avenue in Champlin. The victim is an unidentified nineteen-year-old female. Doctors are not yet reporting on her condition.

"The vehicle believed to hit the victim was a black Mercedes. The witness was unable to get a further description or the license plates for the vehicle. Please call police if you have any information."

Beckett turned the television off and leaned back in the lounge, running his hands through his hair. He was grateful that no one had seen his license plates, but there was still the impending question as to whether Melissa would survive or not.

He knew that he would be in deep trouble if Melissa survived and reported what had happened. He would be in prison for God knew how long for attempted murder.

Beckett couldn't afford to have Melissa live. It'd cost him everything. He had a feeling he would know by night's end how the "doctors reported" on the "unidentified nineteen-year-old female's condition."

* * *

Jack couldn't afford to have Melissa die.

He couldn't raise Amy by himself. He barely knew what formula to get for her at the store, how was he supposed to take care of a three-month-old by himself?

When he looked over and saw Kate staring into the distance, he realized the difference between them. Kate, the one who tried so hard to always be strong, now looked numb. She looked to be thinking of all the different scenarios of what could happen with her. What was he doing? Sitting and waiting for an answer from the doctor of Melissa's life. What was he thinking of in the meantime? That she couldn't go because he couldn't take care of a three-month-old by himself.

He was worried for her life, too, of course, but Kate was taking the cake. She was like he had never seen her before.

If he lost Melissa, he was not only losing his child's mother, but a close friend, one that had been by him when everyone else lacked faith in him. He wasn't ready for someone as gentle as her to leave Earth yet.

Gentle most of the time, anyway. She could be quite the banshee when she wanted to.

To keep himself sane from the worry creeping up on him, he thought back of all the memories he had of Melissa.

_Who are you?!_

Ah, yes. The day they first met. She proved to be quite the banshee, indeed.

_Saints do not move, though grant for prayer's sake._

She said that right before they kissed. He remembered her translation: I don't make the first move. Turned out she didn't have to.

_Mr. Sparrow offered to keep me company, just in case a tornado came._

The day he and Mr. Lewes met. He couldn't help but grin at Pirate Day.

_What is_ wrong_ with you?!_

Melissa said that in the fury of when she found out of the near one-night-stand with Kate last year.

_I missed you._

The day she forgave him for his actions during Cabin Weekend.

_Do you love me more than rum?_

The moment before he had changed her. Her naivety and feelings toward him deepened.

_I'm pregnant._

The impossible happened that day: Jack learned he was about to have a child, and Melissa showed how strong she was by not taking the easy way out.

_Amy Pearl Sparrow._

Melissa had given Jack the greatest gift he could give her: a Sparrow for a daughter.

He had an awful feeling the memories would stop there.

* * *

Kate's sense of time was lost as she waited for news – any news. The longer Will had pulled her closer to him meant one of two things: the doctors knew how to fix Melissa and were saving her, or she was getting closer to reaching her destination at Death's Doorstep.

She couldn't let the latter happen. Melissa had so much to accomplish in her life still. She was a new mother who deserved to see her child grow up. She needed to finish getting her degree to become a veterinarian. She more than deserved to be married off someday and find a husband who loved her.

Melissa deserved to tell Jack that she still loved him.

Kate couldn't bear to never have Melissa say that to him. No matter what the response would be, she would be glad to get it off her chest.

The more Kate thought about what happened this past year, she realized how awful of a person she had been. She had been nothing but selfish when she wanted to sleep with Jack, who Kate _knew_ Melissa was head over heels for. She had moved away when Melissa was single and pregnant and needing her most.

Kate felt that they had been drifting apart this past year. Somehow, they managed to make it work, but it would be difficult to maintain a friendship. Both of them were changing so much. Melissa had a newborn and would go back to college in September, and Kate was about to start a family and was busy with a job of her own.

She was determined to continue this friendship. It would not be lost because of children, schools, and careers.

She laced her fingers through Jack's hand. Momentarily, they met eyes. He seemed so calm. She wondered how he did it. Was he in denial and was pretending this was all a bad dream?

Kate saw a doctor come through the heavy doors. She could swear that this was good news. It just had to be! The doctor wouldn't come out this early, otherwise!

"Are you here for Melissa Lewes?" the doctor asked the three of them.

"Yes," Kate said.

"I need to speak with a family member. It's rather pressing."

"I'm her sister," Kate elected, standing up.

_Close as she'll ever get to a sister_, she thought.

The way the doctor said it nerved her. Was everything not alright?

She could feel Will walking next to her. Kate wondered why Jack stayed behind. Maybe he knew what the doctor was going to say.

"Do you know if Melissa took any aspirin beforehand?" the doctor asked her.

"I gave her some," she said.

Her stomach began to sink. Aspirin was a blood thinner.

"We found that Melissa was bleeding more than normal. We supposed that was from a combination of aspirin and how hard she was hit."

Kate felt her hands begin to shake. The doctor couldn't be saying what she thought he was about to say.

"We've tried everything we could."

Tears clouded Kate's eyes. The doctor couldn't be saying it. He couldn't! Melissa was not going to die!

"No," she whispered.

"I'm so sorry to have to be the one to tell you this," the doctor said gently. "Melissa's dead."

No. He was lying. Melissa couldn't be dead. She was alive and getting ready for a run an hour ago!

"No," she said, shaking her head. "No."

"I'm so sorry," he said.

This couldn't be true. This was an awful dream, a nightmare she would wake up from any minute. Melissa was still alive and well!

Tears poured from Kate's eyes. The impossible at happened. Nineteen-year-old Melissa Lewes, so full of life an hour ago, was now dead.

She wrapped her arms around Will's neck. Will pull her into a tight hug, his hand resting on the back of her head. She continued to sob and pull him closer for support. Who could take such an innocent life? Melissa was a mother!

She began to shake from sobbing so hard.

_This can't be happening_, she thought.

The aspirin. Kate had given her that. Melissa could have lived if she hadn't given that to her.

To top it off, Jack would never know that Melissa Lewes still loved him.

* * *

From the moment the officer arrived at their door, Jack knew that Melissa was going to die. He had an awful feeling that she wasn't going to live though this. He was angry at that he was right.

He wasn't in shock. He had expected it, unlike Kate, who, with every fiber of her being, believed that she would make it.

It was hard for him to grasp, though, that someone so young and close to him had died, much less at the hands of another living being. Who would do such a thing and not own up to it?

Those words had shaken him to the core: Melissa's dead.

He would give anything to have her come back. She had an infectious laugh and a personality like no other: innocent yet bold.

How was he going to raise Amy by himself? How would he ever tell her of her mother?

Jack went over to the Turners and wrapped an arm around Kate, shaking from her tears. He was doing the only thing that he could do for her – he comforted her.

"I'm so sorry, Jack," she said. "I'm so, so sorry."

Was she apologizing because she was the one that gave her the aspirin (the not-so miracle drug), or because she was sorry for their loss?

Wordlessly, Jack rested his chin in her head.

Will looked at Jack with apologetic and irate eyes that only he could possess. "This isn't fair," he said.

"Since when is life, William?" Jack said, looking him in the eye.

* * *

A best friend was important to a woman. It made a sisterly bond, one that was thicker than blood. It was clear to Will that Kate and Melissa had felt like they were sisters for the thirteen years they had known each other.

Thirteen. An unlucky number.

Will was holding his crying wife in his arms, Jack even draping an arm around her. He noticed this was the first time that he had ever seen her cry.

Losing Melissa today was something none of them expected. Just an hour ago she was smiling and getting ready to go for a run.

A life was not meant to be taken at nineteen by another being, much less a mother with so much to live for. Amy would now never meet the mother that would have raised her between right and wrong, and how to talk to boys when she became older. Who would be there during her first heartbreak? Who would help her plan her wedding?

Jack couldn't tackle parenting alone. He had seen Melissa do most of the work. He was new to this, and now he would have to fare alone.

Tonight, the three could fool themselves into believing she was never killed, that she was out and about and would be coming home late. Tomorrow they could pretend that they were planning a party of her's while they planned her funeral and wake. At the wake, they could pretend that they were throwing Melissa a surprise party.

As they would lower her into the ground, though, the reality would hit. She would be underground, and they would be leaving her behind.

Will knew her the least, but still felt deeply affected. He could only imagine how Jack and Kate were going to handle the death.

* * *

Beckett sat down for the 9:00 local evening news to see if there were any developments in the story. There had to be – it had been four hours since he had hit Melissa. The doctors should be able to comment by now.

"We bring you more information on our top story," the blonde said. "We broke the story on our evening broadcast. Police are now releasing the name of the victim of a hit-and-run that took place earlier today at the 3200 block of Zealand Avenue in Champlin. The victim is nineteen-year-old Melissa Lewes. She died shortly after arriving at the hospital."

He had killed her. She was no longer a threat. He couldn't believe that she was actually dead. She was just another name to the list of those who's death he was behind.

"Police are looking for an unidentified black Mercedes. No further details or license plate information were reported. If you know anything involving the hit-and-run, you are asked to call your local police."

He was stunned. Melissa was dead.

* * *

Kate wasn't sure when the three got home that day. The sun was coming back for a day that would never seem to get here. It was marking the end of the day that had turned her world upside down.

It was marking the end of the day that Melissa left this world.

The house had an eerie feel with just the three of them. They moved about silently. Kate curled up one end of the couch.

So many things were going through her mind. How was Jack going to raise Amy all by himself? Why wasn't Melissa given the chance to tell Jack that she still loved him? Why couldn't she raise the daughter that she loved more than life itself?

Kate felt like she was the one that killed her instead of the one that drove the car. She had given her the aspirin. Had she not given her it, she could still be alive.

Why did she have to set her sights on the medallion? Kate was the one that saw it. Why couldn't she walk right past it? If she didn't see it, Kate and Will would never have had to go to couple's therapy with Beckett. Beckett never would have met Melissa.

She already knew the secret that Melissa had intended to take to the grave. Kate didn't need to feel like she had a hand in her friend's death.

She didn't want Will or Jack to hold her, and she was sure that Jack didn't want words of sympathy. Neither was going to comfort the other – they had never felt the need to before.

"We were at the cabin exactly a year ago today," Jack said.

Kate was shocked. After what had just happened, he was thinking about the cabin?

"Melissa died three hours ago and all you can think about is the _cabin_?" Kate narrowed her puffy, red eyes at him..

"Th' first night," Jack said. "What were we talkin' 'bout durin' th' campfire?"

He expected her to remember _how_? What they talked a year ago was not the first thing on her mind at the moment.

"I believe it was ye who asked what we would do if we had one year t' live. Ye asked that on June 15, 2007. Today's June 15, 2008."

Her blood ran cold at that memory. It all came back so quickly.

_I'd get married, have a kid, and just once get drunk. And I'd travel to Paris and make out on top of the Eiffel Tower._

Melissa had done half of those things. She never got to marry or go to Paris.

Tears sprung to Kate's eyes just thinking about at all the opportunities she would never have. They started to stream down her cheeks as she realized their last words were "I love you".

"I'm going to bed," she said, going up the stairs to the guest bedroom.


	6. Fate

Chapter Six

Fate

**Alright, so the death came as a bit of a shock to everyone. I am so sorry that I killed her off – believe me, I was crying, too (if that doesn't sound too pathetic)!**

**Thank you for the reviews!

* * *

**

When Jack had waken up during the middle of the night, he could see that Melissa was not laying next to him. He had been able to forget about her death through the sleep that eventually came, but was sickeningly aware that he would be the only one getting up during the night.

Jack wondered if Melissa was watching them the first night. He wanted to believe that she was. At least she would be here, even in a form he couldn't see.

He wondered what it was that she wanted to tell him. It could have been something as simple as asking him to get up more in the middle of the night for Amy.

Jack was surprised to feel that he was starting to miss Melissa. A friend of one year couldn't have had that much of an effect on him, could she?

He was going to find out who did this. Even if it took him the rest of his days, he would find out who killed Melissa.

Each time Amy cried through the night, he wondered how he was going to manage single parenting. This was being thrown at him, and he had no clue how to manage. Amy wouldn't have an easy life if it was just them.

Melissa's parents were bound to ask for custody. He was Amy's father, though, and, given time, he would know how to raise her. Jack had full custodial rights! These were the parents that wanted Melissa to give Amy up for adoption, after all.

Jack remembered a conversation the four of them had in mid-November. Kate had asked Melissa why she loved the name Amy so much.

_Amy means "loved". I just want Amy to know that, no matter what, she'll always be loved._

It was practically as if her death was predetermined. Kate had asked the question that sealed her fate a year ago about what they would do if they had a year left to live, and, ironically, Melissa named their child Amy because it meant "loved".

If he could go back in time twenty-four hours ago, Melissa would be under strict house arrest. Jack would not let her out under any circumstances.

There was such a thing as traveling to the future. Couldn't there be such a thing as traveling to the back? There had to be a way. He would do anything to bring her back.

In the back of his mind, Jack began to wonder what it was that she wanted to tell him again.

* * *

The day after Melissa's death was here, and Kate Sims still felt like a murderer. She felt it was her fault that Melissa was no longer here. She gave her the Advil. She even bought the medallion last year.

She was the one that was so insistent on buying that medallion. What good had it brought them now? Her best friend was dead because of a piece of cursed Aztec gold.

She still had a hard time believing that Melissa was dead. Perhaps it would have settled in more if she had slept last night.

Had she slept? She wasn't sure. Kate felt exhausted to the bone.

_This is what a murderer feels like_, she thought.

Now came the part of planning the funeral and wake, something that she wasn't sure if she could even force herself to do.

_Please let this be a bad dream_, she prayed. _Have her be alive and I won't ask for another thing as long as I live._

She couldn't hear Melissa's voice from the downstairs. It was just Jack's and Will's, though they were talking about her. She still wanted to believe that it was a bad dream.

Could she force herself out of bed? Could she go downstairs to know that Melissa wouldn't be there?

Her eyes burned as she went down the stairs from lack of sleep. The room fell quiet as she curled up on the same end of the couch as last night.

_Wonderful_, she thought. _Now I'm being treated like I'm a murderer._

Her eyes went downwards towards the couch. The silence was overbearing.

They didn't exchange "good mornings". There was nothing good about it.

"Th' parents are plannin' e'erythin'," Jack said, breaking the silence between them.

Kate looked up. "What do you mean?

"Th' funeral 'n' wake."

It truly had happened. Melissa's death wasn't just a horrible dream.

"Oh," she said.

What else could she say? Despite the fact the two hadn't talked for six months, Kate was not about to tackle planning her friend's funeral.

"When did you hear this?" she asked.

"We talked o'er th' phone last night."

She nodded. Kate vaguely remembered hearing him talk to Mr. and Mrs. Lewes on the car ride back to the hospital, breaking the news. She didn't know they had talked afterwards.

"Wake's tomorrow at Robert's Funeral Home at 3:00. Funeral's Wednesday at 12:00 at St. Stephen's church. They don't want anyone t' 'elp with th' plannin'. S'ppose it's their way o' tryin' to make things right fer their daughter."

_Too little, too late_, she thought.

"They do want ya t' do the eulogy, though," Jack said.

Her heart dropped to the bottom of her stomach faster than a rock. She couldn't write the eulogy. It hadn't even set in that Melissa is died, and they wanted someone who had a hand in killing her to write it?

"Tell them no," she said. "I can't."

"Yes, ya can," Jack said.

Writing the eulogy would mean reliving all the memories that they had. She didn't want to remember them, not right now.

This is what Melissa would want, though. All she could do was just that.

"Fine."

She realized how angry she sounded when she said that. She was sure Jack didn't notice or cared, though.

"Jack," Will said. "Is there any way we can help you with Amy?"

Will had gone crazy. In the midst of the shock settling in of Melissa's death, Will was all but asking if they could adopt her!

"Adopt 'er," Jack said simply.

"You've gone mad with grief," Kate said. "Jack, all three of us know that you can raise Amy by yourself. We are not taking the only thing left of Melissa away from you. She is your daughter. It's not going to be easy, but we know you can do it."

If Will had faith in him that Kate thought, why had he offered to help in any way? They would be in New York, and he would be a thousand miles away.

"Ya two want a kid. Take 'er. Really."

Amy would be a reminder of Melissa, both a blessing and a curse. She was Jack's child, though, and Kate was not going to take Amy.

She was starting to get a headache. This was not the thing she wanted to talk about right now. She just wanted to wake up from this dream.

"I suppose I should get started on the eulogy," Kate said, leaving.

* * *

Jack was honest when he had asked the Turners if they would take Amy. He was not fit to raise Amy by himself. They would know what to do a bit better than he would.

Jack was not a bad parent, per se. Just...inexperienced. He had no desire to learn parenting by himself, either.

"Jack, if you give away custody of Amy, Melissa's parents are going to fight for her," Will said after Kate had left the room.

"They'd have t' go through the legal process, though, William. I'd say in court that th' grandparents 'ad no active role in th' Sea Turtle's life 'n' that I recommend some married, childless friends."

"The fact that we're nineteen and twenty-two won't help us, though. Mr. and Mrs. Lewes have years of parenting experience behind them, despite that they weren't involved in Amy's life. The court isn't necessarily looking for how active a role they had in Amy's life. It's who's going to be the best parent."

The last thing that Jack needed was Amy being in custody of her grandparents. These were the same ones that estranged themselves from Melissa because of the very child, were they not?

"Keeping her truly is the best option. For you and her."

Jack understood why it would be the best thing for him to keep Amy. His daughter would know who he was. Even if he gave her to Kate and Will, he would see her the four times a year that they came to visit. Mr. and Mrs. Lewes lived nearby. If they were nice (unlikely), he could visit whenever he pleased.

Either way, though, he would rent a place more affordable. One paycheck couldn't pay the rent on this house.

Wonderful. Jack was the one now starting to realize how the death turned his world upside down.

"William," Jack said. "It would be superb if we talked about this later."

* * *

Staring at an empty sheet of notebook paper and a pen in her hand, Kate could not bring herself to write the eulogy. The reality of her death hadn't even settled in yet, how was she expected to write this?

She still wanted to believe that Melissa was just out running an errand, not being prepared for the wake tomorrow at a funeral home.

It still didn't make sense. "Melissa" and "dead" did not belong in the same sentence, much less being nineteen _and_ a mother.

Unfair couldn't begin to describe the situation. She was young and just had a child, why was it her time to go?

Out of frustration at the world and life, she began to cry.

* * *

Jack had the channel five midday news on. Kate had disappeared since morning, most likely stewing about how to write the eulogy. She was silent, not even a peep from her.

He could vaguely hear a story about Melissa on the news. Jack didn't want to see it. As much as he hated to admit it to anyone, he was missing Melissa. Now would be a time for a TV host to say where the hidden cameras were and for Melissa to walk through the door. He'd be so grateful, yet furious. Jack would ask her what she was thinking and why she thought it'd be funny.

In a way, it would be like when she nearly was on the bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis last year, when she was unable to call him.

He remembered that she said that she felt like she cheated death that day. Jack was beginning to find the signs eerie. Did she have any premonition of her death?

He remembered hearing from Gibbs that a person's soul knew three days ahead of time that they would die. She had acted a bit sketchy all last week. Did she know as early as then?

He half wondered if she had told Kate about any premonition. They were alone on Thursday upstairs for a while – the day that she would have known. She had been more quiet than usual, too, that day.

"Jack," Will said. "Come here, quick."

Jack came out of the kitchen and looked at the television. It was now just a story about a library opening.

"The person that ran Melissa over was the owner of a black Mercedes," Will said.

"Indubitably helpful, Mr. Turner," Jack said, going back into the kitchen.

"You don't remember who we know that _owns _a black Mercedes, do you?" Will asked.

"Clearly not."

Will was so silent that Jack had to turn around to see what it is he was going to say.

"Cutler Beckett."

Cutler Beckett? It had been months since he and Melissa talked. She hadn't hid something from him, had she? What was he doing in the area?

"They don't have any other information," Will said, going into the kitchen. "No license plate, model, anything. I remember when Kate and I went to EITC Couples Counseling that he had driven a black Mercedes."

"That widely expands our choices, William, and tells us not to assume that it's not the man that wanted _us_ dead at one point."

"It wouldn't surprise me if it is, though," Will said. "He hasn't been pleased with her for months."

"He's wanted her, though. Who gets rid of something they wants?"

"When they see it as a threat. This one was to his happiness. He wanted to control the seas once, who's to say that life and death of a person is out of the question?"

Could it be that the whelp was finally like the Sparrow? He was amazed with how quickly Will was putting two and two together.

Beckett couldn't have killed her.

Could he?

* * *

**Yes, it's dark right now. It'll lighten up, though, have no fear.**


	7. Blind

Chapter Seven

Blind

**I can't tell you how much I appreciate your reviews. Thank you so much!**

**This is a short filler chapter for a long next chapter. It was only two pages on Word.

* * *

**

Jack hated the wake that was held for Melissa. The funeral home seemed more like a tomb than a celebration of a life. Holding Amy, he sat next to Kate in the sitting area of the funeral home, who looked nothing short of a ghost in black. He watched her as she looked at all the others filling the home in black.

Jack had suggested that they go see Melissa's closed coffin, but Kate refused to. He wondered why. Jack thought that it was because she didn't want to face the truth.

And she thought that he wanted to face it any more than her? He was now fathering a three-month-old by himself.

"This isn't how Melissa would have wanted it," Kate said, looking at all the people in black.

"All evidence t' th' contrary, love," Jack said.

She looked bitterly at him. "She was my best friend for thirteen years."

"Like I said. Not 'ow she would 'ave wanted it."

She crossed her arms over her chest and looked down at the burgandy carpet.

Jack hated this place. It was so...gloomy. Only a few had smiled and laughed. It had been as noticeable as glass shattering in the middle of the night. They must not have known Melissa well enough (or had they known her and knew that she wouldn't want it like this?).

"Jack, what are you going to do with Amy?" Will asked.

After a day of thinking, he thought it would be best if he kept her. It wasn't worth risking the Leweses having her. Besides, he could raise her himself.

"Keepin' 'er," he said.

Will nodded. "I'm glad to hear that."

Kate turned to look at him. "If it ever begins to be too much, move to New York and live with us."

_She_ was the one that had gone mad with grief. Four would be two too many in their apartment.

"We could help you raise Amy," she continued. "Take a while to collect yourself and learn the ropes and live with us if you need to."

Her eyes said it all: "I'm going to need someone to talk to who misses her just as much as I do."

Jack wanted to raise Amy by himself, the more he had thought about it. He could do it. Never had he needed help before for anything, and he would not make this his first time.

"I'll keep it in mind," he fibbed.

* * *

Kate splashed cold water onto her face that evening. She was out of her black dress that she wore to the wake and was now in a chemise.

The evening seemed to be here all too soon. She was just that much closer to facing the funeral and giving the eulogy about Melissa Lewes.

Worst of all, she was dreading the burial. They would leave Melissa in the ground while they went home. She and Will would be getting up early tomorrow to leave for New York. Kate wondered if that would be harder than the funeral – they would be separated even more than before. She would be in New York, and Melissa...she couldn't bear to think about Melissa.

Kate wanted so badly to believe so badly that tomorrow would never come and that they were not holding her funeral. She still couldn't believe that Melissa had been killed.

She wanted nothing more than to wake up and realize this was an awful dream. It had been two days since she had seen Melissa – they would be seeing each other again, right?

* * *

Despite that Will knew Melissa the least out of the three, he still felt like something was missing. Not only in the house or when they were together, but a small part of him felt gone. She had been such a wonderful person.

No, wonderful was a horrible word for Melissa. It was an understatement for one who changed their lives in so many ways. It was too hard to believe that she was here one day and gone the next.

He was worried how Jack was going to function without her. Will knew that Jack was strong, but caring for their daughter could be the thing that would break him.

He wondered if Jack would take up their offer and live in New York with them. Will knew that his and Kate's plans for a family would be delayed for her sake with postpartum depression as a risk with Melissa's sudden death. Their apartment would be a tight fit, but it was nothing they couldn't handle. They would be more than willing to help Jack in any way they could.

As he drifted off to sleep, he wondered how Jack would tell Amy about her mother one day.


	8. Goodbye

Chapter Eight

Goodbye

**Well...this is the funeral. Nothing else to say except thank you for the reviews, as always.**

**And people have been asking why I killed Melissa off. My answer: if I told you, why would you keep reading?

* * *

**

Stepping into St. Stephen's church, Will noticed the mood was not unlike yesterday's. Most everyone wore the same, dreary expression. The only thing he noticed that was different was that Cutler Beckett attending the funeral.

Will was shocked at seeing Beckett here. With his stony expression, Will wasn't sure whether or not he was distraught at the news, or if he had killed her and was trying to act as if he were a stoic.

He was looking at the board of pictures of Melissa posted in the entryway. Making his way to him, Will looked at the pictures. For a moment, he forgot about confronting Beckett and looked at the Melissa he had never gotten to know. There were ones showing everything about her short nineteen years on Earth. The baby pictures reminded him so much of Amy. He wondered how much she would grow to look like her mother.

As she matured, he began to recognize the Melissa that he knew. It was so strange to see the pictures of her – no one knew that within a few years, these would be the only memories left of her. He couldn't bear to look at them any longer.

Will tore his eyes away from the pictures and turned to look at Beckett, hands behind his back, who was looking at the opposite board. Will walked over to him.

"She was beautiful," Will began, looking at a picture of Melissa in a long lavender dress, her hair in a delicate up do. He turned his attention to Beckett. "It makes me wonder why you took such a life."

Not faltering for a moment, Beckett turned to him. "Everyone copes in their own way, Mr. Turner, but I would not expect that I would be blamed for her death."

Will was not going to let Beckett get away with Melissa's death. He was convinced that he was the one who was responsible – he wasn't sure why, but he just _knew_ that he was responsible for her death.

"You drive a black Mercedes and claim that you love this woman, yet here you are with no expression."

_The expression of a killer_, he added silently.

"Because I drive the same brand and color of the vehicle that killed Melissa does not mean that I am a suspect, nor does the fact that I am not as upset as her parents. Look at Sparrow, he seems quite fine. Why aren't you suspecting that he could have had a hand in her death?"

That was the instant that Will knew that Cutler Beckett had killed Melissa. He had made it so that anyone but him was the culprit. His green-blue eyes were now harder than before.

"Because Jack doesn't drive a black Mercedes," Will said softly through gritted teeth. "We were with him _at home_ the night of the incident."

Beckett remained silent and stared him down. Even if nothing could be reported due to lack of evidence, at least he would know that one person knew something.

"You couldn't have a trial," Beckett said softly. "You have no proof, Mr. Turner."

"I never said there would be a trial. The only proof is that a secret doesn't last forever."

With that, Will walked away.

* * *

Kate could hardly keep her eyes off of Melissa's coffin. She didn't want to believe that _she_ was in there, dead. Any moment she would pop up and say this was all a joke. She had never seen her _dead_ – if she hadn't seen something, it couldn't be true, right?

They had sang "Angel" by Sarah McLachlan. Tears had brimmed her eyes when she heard the song being played. A song had never struck her so deeply before. Melissa had been nothing short of angel her entire life. She wondered if she was going to be one that would watch over them.

As she went up to read the eulogy, though, she was becoming more aware that Melissa was not going to pop out of the coffin. This was when she was about to give a tribute to her.

She really was gone.

She stepped up to the altar and went behind the stand with a microphone, her hands shaking from the harsh reality. The bottom level of the church was filled – she wondered how many people had attended the funeral of Melissa Lewes.

"Melissa is they type of person that you never forget," she said. "She's affected everyone that she's ever met in one way or another. Whether you talked to her when you needed to or listened to her advice...she was always there for you."

Kate could feel a lump forming in her throat. She couldn't will herself to look at the coffin. Kate couldn't afford to start crying now.

"She always shot for the stars. Melissa gave her all into everything that she did. She never gave up on something."

Kate looked at Jack and thought, _Like you._

"She always wanted to go to Paris. There was something about that city that fascinated her. I'll never forget last year how she told me she wanted to go on top of the Eiffel Tower."

She winced inwardly when she realized she had said that a year to the day that she died.

"You always felt like you could go to her for anything. She gave me the best advice that anyone has ever given me.

"She could make someone laugh without realizing that she did. Melissa's made me laugh with her everyday views on life more than any joke."

Kate was beginning to see that this was harder than she thought it would be.

"Just the past year alone, I see how much she's changed. Anyone that knew her last year knew that she was a shy, innocent girl. She has grown so much stronger this year. She learned to think for herself. Those that know her...All we can say is that we've never been more proud of her."

She looked over at her parents, the first time in over a year that she saw them. Her parents looked numb – a rather weak word for two parents who lost their only child. She wondered if they were more numb at the fact that they lost her, or that they had never mended things (no one was _that_ heartless – they had to feel some sort of remorse for what they had done over the winter).

"She was a wonderful mother. Melissa was starting to raise her daughter – Amy. The way that she looked at Amy is a look that I'll never forget. She was on her way to leading a wonderful life. Melissa was going to be a veterinarian in a few years...who knew what life she could have had."

She wanted Melissa to pop up from the coffin now. Kate didn't want to say the final words of the eulogy.

"Rest in peace, Melissa. We miss you."

She stepped down from the altar and went back to the front row of the "friends" half. Kate didn't make eye contact with anyone.

When the priest directed them to stand and make the final prayer, Amy started crying. Before Jack had a chance to, Will reached for her.

"I've got her," he mouthed to Jack. He picked her up in the carrier and began to walk down the aisle. She faced forward when he was a few rows away, then clasped her hands together and bowed her head.

Kate looked to see that Jack had his hands clasped, although she doubted that he was praying. She couldn't begin to guess what Jack was thinking about.

The gentle piano opening for James Blunt's "Goodbye My Lover" began after the prayers. It was the final song, one of Melissa's favorites. It was one Kate had listened to hundreds of times before without a second thought. She wouldn't be able to hear it without thinking of Melissa now.

_Did I disappoint you or let you down?_

_Should I be feeling guilty or let the judges frown?_

_'Cause I'd saw the end before we'd begun._

_Yes, I knew you were blinded and I knew I had won._

_So I took what's mine by eternal right._

_Took your soul out into the night._

_It may be over but it won't stop there,_

_I am here for you if you'd only care._

_You touched my heart, you touched my soul._

_You changed my life and all my goals._

_And love is blind and that I knew when,_

_My heart was blinded by you._

_I've kissed your lips and held your hand._

_Shared your dreams and shared your bed._

_I know you well, I know your smell._

_I've been addicted to you._

_Goodbye my lover._

_Goodbye my friend._

_You have been the one._

_You have been the one for me._

_Goodbye my lover._

_Goodbye my friend._

_You have been the one._

_You have been the one for me._

Kate reached out to hold Jack's hand. She laced her fingers through his.

_I am a dreamer, and when I wake,_

_You can't break my spirit – it's my dreams you take._

_And as you move on, remember me,_

_Remember us and all we used to be._

_I've seen you cry, I've seen you smile._

_I've watched you sleeping for a while._

_I'd be the father of your child._

_I'd spend a lifetime with you._

_I know your fears and you know mine._

_We've had our doubts, but now we're fine._

_And I love you, I swear that's true._

_I cannot live without you._

They met eyes. His facade was still strong, although, if the song was doing to him half of what it was doing to her, he was being torn apart inside.

_Goodbye my lover._

_Goodbye my friend._

_You have been the one._

_You have been the one for me._

_Goodbye my lover._

_Goodbye my friend._

_You have been the one._

_You have been the one for me._

_And I still hold your hand in mine._

_In mine when I'm asleep._

_And I will bare my soul in time,_

_When I'm kneeling at your feet._

_Goodbye my lover._

_Goodbye my friend._

_You have been the one._

_You have been the one for me._

_I'm so hallow, baby, I'm so hallow._

_I'm so, I'm so, I'm so hallow._

_I'm so hallow, baby, I'm so hallow._

_I'm so, I'm so, I'm so hallow.

* * *

_

The sky above them in the graveyard was cloudy and threatened rain. Jack half expected it to start right now. It fit the mood all too well. Everything else had fallen in place with Melissa's death, what harm could a little rain do?

Jack had seen Beckett at the funeral. He wondered why he had come if he had indeed killed Melissa. He knew that people least suspected something that was in plain sight – people would automatically assume that whoever killed Melissa wouldn't attend the funeral.

_Wrong_, he thought as he imagined Beckett's smug expression.

Melissa's tombstone read:

_Melissa Rose Lewes_

_April 17, 1989 – June 15, 2008_

_Beloved mother, child, and friend._

Why didn't Jack feel that that sufficed? People more than loved Melissa.

Her coffin started to be lowered into the ground. It was hard to believe that _she_ was in there, dead. Only three days ago, she was alive and well.

He hated how quickly things could change. It seemed that life had constantly been changing for the two of them. It was always one thing right after the other – their meeting, their feelings, the pregnancy, the near death experience she had last year, and now, the death.

Kate had held his hand when "Goodbye My Lover" was playing, mostly for her sake (though, he had to admit, he had gotten chills when the line "I'd be the father of your child" was sung) and to show him support. Now, it was his chance to support her.

He didn't, though. She looked like she would scream if someone touched her right now. She looked stony and looked intently at the coffin being lowered.

The coffin had been fully lowered, and the dirt was laid over the coffin. People started to leave. Kate just stared at the filled hole where a new body in the earth.

It wasn't before long that the Lewes, Sparrows, and Turners were the only ones left. Her eyes remained forward. He half wondered if she was even aware that everyone had left.

"Katie," Jack said, gently touching her shoulder.

She jerked his arm off her shoulder and walked closer to Melissa's grave.

* * *

Kate looked down at the grave where her friend now lay. Leaving the cemetery would sober her about Melissa's death. She'd be six feet under tonight, while they would be in a house.

She couldn't be separated now from her, not after everything that they had been through together.

It wasn't fair. Melissa had been murdered at nineteen and left a child behind. How could life be that cruel and take someone so innocent?

Melissa still had to tell Jack that she cared about him. She needed to see her little girl grow up into the woman that she had been.

She was vaguely aware of the thunder rumbling overhead and the rain starting to pour on them.

Kate wasn't sure the next time she would see the grave. A few months? A year?

The rain falling on her face mixed with her tears. She was starting to realize that Melissa was dead.

Kate hated both of those facts.


	9. Shatter

Chapter Nine

Shatter

**My inspiration for this chapter was Kelly Clarkson's video for "Never Again". I do think you're going to like it, though!

* * *

**

Yellow walls did not go with a murderer. Paintings of flowers did not go with a murderer.

A man who took rejection a bit too harshly did not deserve to be a certified couples counselor.

Looking at Beckett set off a different level of emotions I had never felt before. It had been worse than when my parents betrayed me last year. This was sheer anger that I felt when I saw the man who killed me for the first time. It was an anger that I was sure no human could feel.

I was still getting used to the fact that I had died. I could go wherever I wanted in the blink of an eye. I never needed sleep, I never needed to stop to do anything. I had lost all sense of time. No one noticed me. It was quite different than being alive.

Not better, though, by any means.

Furious was an understatement at what I felt towards the man that robbed me of my life. He had no right to kill me – he could _never_ justify what he did to me. I would never get to raise my only child and live the life I had planned to.

I had never gotten to tell Jack that I still loved him. It would be pointless, the more I thought about it. Even if I was alive, things would never have worked out between us.

Alive.

I wanted to be that horribly. I wanted to experience everything I had never gotten to. I wanted to hear Amy say "mama" to me for the first time, to go to Paris and kiss on top of the Eiffel Tower, and get married.

If it meant I could be alive again, I would even have my twenty-first birthday with Jack, like he wanted it to be, even though I hated alcohol since the night of Dani's party.

Beckett's office had a couple in their late twenties on the same couch that my best friend and her husband once sat down on. How much had time passed since then? Was it only a year, or had it been two years...or more?

I kept my eyes on the tense couple as I walked behind Beckett, my hands resting on the cool leather of his chair.

"Go ahead, Mrs. Moore," Beckett said. "Do tell your husband about your _problems_."

"Thought it was all fun and games, huh?" I said softly into Beckett's ear.

I was going to do whatever I could do to drive Beckett to insanity. He killed me, I should be able to get some revenge.

"Or is what you do for revenge?" I asked, touching his arm. He looked at his arm, then casually crossed them. I was frustrated that I wasn't getting more of a reaction out of him. What more did I have to do?

"Or, could it be...?" I sat on the coffee table and crossed my legs, looking straight at him. "That you killed me because I didn't make you happy? Is it that hard to believe that for once, Cutler didn't get what he wanted?"

His stony expression while looking right through me angered me. Had he been this stoic after my death? For all I knew, though, it could have been a year or two, maybe even more, since I died.

"You know what makes me angry, Beckett?" I asked, standing up and walking to one of the paintings of a lily. "That you can just take a person's life. I'll be damned if you running me over was an 'accident.'"

Irate (again, being a gross understatement) at what he did to be, I swung at the painting of my favorite flower. It made a sound not unlike nails on a chalkboard.

I didn't care. He deserved it.

Beckett and the patients looked in my direction at the swinging painting. The room became silent, save for the noise of the painting swinging against the wall.

"I see I have your attention," I said, satisfied.

Beckett chuckled and turned back to his clients. "Air conditioning," he excused.

"My, aren't we good at making excuses at the drop of a hat?" I said. "Perhaps you could make one of why you _killed me_."

Time didn't heal all wounds. I could never forgive him.

"Tell me!" I said

I knew he couldn't hear me. I wanted an answer from _someone_ as to why I had to go so young.

I saw there were three glasses of water on the coffee table.

"Tell me!" I said, louder.

If I was alive, I would be worried to see my blood pressure.

I could see the glasses beginning to shake, the water building up like rocky waves before a storm at sea. I saw that all three shattered into pieces, almost as if someone had squeezed it. I knew that had to do with my anger.

Now I could break things without picking them up?

This would be interesting.

I wondered how Beckett would explain this one. He had looked only confused, though. I wondered if he thought that perhaps his past that he thought he had gotten rid of wasn't so gone, after all.

"Oh, a haunted office," Mrs. Moore said icily. "How _charming_ when my husband and I are having marital issues."

Beckett looked – dare I say it – flustered at the very mention of his office being haunted. I knew that he wouldn't let himself entertain the thought that I could be here.

"That's absurd," Beckett said. "My office is not haunted."

"Denial," I said, walking over to the radio on his desk by the computer. "Perfectly normal. It is the first stage of grief, after all."

What would it take for him to believe that I was here?

I turned on the sound system. It was set at a light rock station. It was something I had expected him to listen to, though it hardly sounded like something a murderer would listen to.

I changed it to the local country station. "Before He Cheats" by Carrie Underwood started to play. How appropriate. A girl finally getting the revenge she deserved.

Seeing Beckett frightened was priceless. As he turned around to look at the radio, the blood began to drain from his face. Satisfied at making my presence known, I smiled.

"This is ridiculous," Mrs. Moore said, standing up. "We're not going to waste our time with this."

I saw the two clients get up and exit the room angrily. I could feel a smug smile on my face as they closed the door.

Beckett closed his eyes, leaned back in his chair and pinched the bridge of his nose. "No doubt you're the one behind this shenanigans, Miss Lewes."

* * *

Jack couldn't remember the last time that the house had been this silent at 7:00. Amy had been put to sleep, and now it was just Jack in the house. 

The Turners had left for New York early this morning, while, under Kate's orders, stayed home for the day. That couldn't have been a worse idea. He was aware of how empty the house felt without Melissa in it. Her cheery spirit had lightened the house, especially after Amy's arrival.

He wouldn't allow himself to miss her. Jack knew that if he stopped and allowed himself to realize that she was gone for good, he _would_ miss her. That was the last thing he needed – to miss a woman, much less the one that had been such a vital part of his life the last few months.

Although, when he stopped to think about where she was, he did begin to miss her. It overwhelmed him that he would be the only one raising their child. The first few years would be the easiest. As Amy got older, though, she would ask why Will and his child always came with a woman, and why didn't she have a woman living with them?

That sickened him to think that someday he would have to explain that to her.

He wondered what the teenage years would be like. Who would be there for her to ask questions that only Melissa could answer, like how to talk to a boy, or what sort of dress to wear a high school dance?

He wondered if Will was right. Was Beckett the one that killed Melissa?

* * *

The first night back in New York was the hardest for Kate. She was on the other side of the country, and Melissa was still buried. 

The very thought that she was dead made her throat tighten. Tears sprung to her eyes. She was forced to close her eyes while in bed as to not start crying.

It was too hard for her to believe that she would never see Melissa again. No one could have guessed that she would have died that night.

No one had a chance to say goodbye.

Kate began to cry. She was tired of crying. It seemed to be all that she had done since Melissa died. Her best friend of thirteen years had a life was cut much too short.

Melissa was not the only person she was thinking of lately. She worried about Jack and how he could handle raising Amy alone. What concerned her was that he was so calm the past few days. She wondered how deeply in denial he was.

"Kate," Will said softly.

Even though she had most likely woken him up, she rolled over to face Will. He enveloped her in a hug, much like the one he had given her when they found out that Melissa had died.

She had not said anything; not about how it wasn't fair that she was taken so young or that she still had something she needed to tell Jack. Kate had done something she never did before.

She shattered like glass.


	10. Puzzle

Chapter Ten

Puzzle

**Sorry for the delayed update. I've been very busy with school, babysitting, volunteering...you get the picture. The good news: it's a three day weekend! I'll give you one hint what's going to be happening: I won't _not_ be writing... **

**Thank you for the reviews! Reeses for you all!**

* * *

The heat of late June made Jack remember the days of when he had been in the Caribbean. He had spent his days sailing the seas, the sun tickling his face, hearing the lapping of the water beneath the Pearl. At night, he had pilfered and plundered, and occasionally spent the night (or nights) in Tortuga. He had captained a crew of miscreants. Jack had been his own person.

Life had been easy fourteen, even thirteen, months ago. He had no attachments to anything, save his beloved Pearl. Jack didn't have a daughter that only _he_ would be taking care of.

Who would have thought that this is how life would play out? He had been nonchalant and without a care in the world a bit over a year ago. Now he felt like the weight of the world was on his shoulders.

_Just a bad dream_, he thought.

He hadn't wanted to get attached to Melissa. If he had known this would happen, he would never have become close with her. It was impossible to not like Melissa, though, no matter how hard he would have tried. She could attract anyone. Bugger, they were as opposite as night and day, and they had fit as perfectly together like two pieces in a puzzle.

He hated that he let himself get attached. It just made coping that much harder. Jack would have to learn how to go one without the girl who, just two weeks ago, was walking around the house with Amy on her hip, singing "Into the Night", a song he loathed with every fiber of his being.

He'd let her sing that all she wanted if she could come back.

He remembered that today marked one week since he last saw her. The last thing he saw of her was her, going for a run. He wondered what song she was listening to when she was hit. Jack began to wonder what she was thinking of. She was always thinking of something – he knew that's why she had asked so many questions.

He wondered if Beckett really was the one that killed her. It would have been six months since they last talked. Had she been something hiding from Jack?

Why did she feel like she had to keep secrets from him? She had shared everything with him, why would it start with her protecting Beckett?

Maybe they hadn't talked. He could have killed Melissa out of revenge and hatred (for whatever reason that may have been).

He began to wonder, not for the first time, what it was she wanted to tell him the night of June 15.

* * *

Kate assumed this is what depression felt like. It was a sadness (a gross understatement) that she couldn't seem to describe. The past week had been a blur to her. She could remember the funeral and wake, but not much more. Kate had barely talked and often found herself closing her eyes and reliving the funeral, "Goodbye My Lover" playing on the piano and the gentle voice that sang it, or the rain falling after Melissa was lowered into her grave -- the true moment where Kate realized Melissa would never be coming back.

Kate didn't think she could cry anymore than she already had. Even when she thought all her tears were gone, she still found some to shed. That was usually at night, where thoughts of Melissa came the hardest. That night, it marked one week (calling it an anniversary sounded too cheery of a word when talking about a death – nothing good could come out of this) since her death. Kate thought about the moment she heard the doctor deliver those two dreaded words. She sickeningly realized that she was crying yet again.

It was now Monday morning. Kate's eyes burned from lack of sleep and from how much she had been crying the past week.

The medallion layed in front of her on the kitchen table. A mug of coffee was by her. She looked at the medallion – the same one that brought her so much joy once. It was hard to believe that same piece of gold now put her through hell. If she hadn't found that medallion, Melissa would be at home, not out for a run. She would be alive and well, looking eager to start her sophomore year of college. Melissa would never had to deal with Beckett's unwanted attractions.

"Will?" she asked softly. She met her brown-eyed husband that sat across from her.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Who do you think killed her?"

Either she was hallucinating and was now mad from grief, or she saw worry in his eyes. "I'm not sure."

She could have taken Will's word. He had no reason to lie to her.

Except to protect her from something that he didn't think she wanted to hear.

Even though she was depressed, she could still tell when Will was lying to her. They had the bond that Jack and Melissa had.

"Who do you know that killed her?"

His worried eyes tore away from her's.

_You _do _know_, she thought.

"Will, who was it?" she asked. She didn't care if it was only a week since Melissa's death, she was going to find out who killed her best friend and Amy's mother.

"Kate, I couldn't have told you. You were like I had never seen you before. You still are!"

"What's the point in hiding it?" she snapped. "I know that someone other than me was responsible for her death. Why won't you tell me?"

"Because you'll feel even more responsible! I don't want you to feel like you were the one that killed her."

Why did he think that she would feel more responsible for Melissa's death? Kate couldn't think of a person that could have killed Melissa. She had no enemies.

Beckett didn't like her, though.

Beckett.

A chill rushed up her back.

"Was it Beckett?" she asked.

No response. Will only looked at the medallion. Uneasy silence filled the room.

"Was it Beckett?" she asked harsher, her voice cracking at the end.

"The one that killed her drove a black Mercedes. I remember that he drove one."

Her heart sunk to the bottom of her stomach. Everything made sense. She was the one that bought the medallions. A year ago, she and Will had gone to Beckett for couples counseling. If they hadn't, they would never have met Beckett and gotten married. Melissa and Beckett would never have met, then, on the plane to the wedding.

This was all her fault. All of this could have been avoided. Why did she have to be the one stupid enough to let all of this to happen?

As quickly as she was furious with herself, she found herself disgusted even more furious with Beckett. How could he take a life that seemed to mean so much to him, much less _Melissa's_?

Disgusted with the news, Kate got up and went back into their room, leaving the medallion behind with Will, something she should have down long ago.

* * *

I could hear that Amy was crying. It was the cry that I was familiar with, the one that I remembered her to have. It may have been as little as a day after I died, or it could have been a month or more.

I saw Jack enter the room through what little moonlight streamed through the curtains. He looked exhausted, just like a new parent did. My heart swelled with pride that he was getting up to take care of her.

I didn't realize how much I missed him until I saw him again. This was the first time that I had seen him since my death. Had things gone right, the next time that I would have seen him was when I told I loved him.

Jack turned the lamp on. I couldn't help but smile at the thought that just one thing I said stuck with him.

"You remembered," I said.

He didn't respond. I didn't expect him to, nor did I want his attention. I was fine just being able to see him again.

Amy didn't look a day older than when I last left her. I wonder how much time had passed.

"Amy!" I cooed. "Hi, sweetie!"

I had once heard that children were spiritually gifted and could see things that most others couldn't, such as spirits left behind. She didn't turn around at my voice. Maybe it had been too long since she saw me.

Jack sat down with Amy on the rocker. I took a knee next to them.

"Why didn't I hear Mozart?" I teased Jack. "You know that's going to make her smarter."

I looked at Jack, his expression unchanged. The more I looked at him, I realized this wasn't a new-parent tired. This was a drained-from-the-cards-life-dealt exhaustion. He was the sole guardian of Amy, I knew, and he was working his 9:00-5:00 shift at Target. It wouldn't had drained him as much as he appeared to.

He wasn't in mourning, was he? Not Jack. He was too strong to mourn_me_. I didn't want him to. I wanted life to go on for him. I didn't want _anyone_ to be sad with my passing!

"Jack?" I asked gently. "Are you alright?"

"What's th' story t'night?" Jack asked a crying Amy. "Do ya want th' one where Dad met yer mum?"

Touched, I smiled. He really hadn't forgotten me.

"Well...Daddy was eaten by a terrible beastie called th' Kraken. It was Davy Jones's pet. Came t' 'unt Daddy down when 'e was Cap'n o' th' Black Pearl. Then do ya know what 'appened? Th' Kraken ate Daddy! Th' next thing 'e knew, he was in yer mum's bedroom. This was ten months before ya were born, mind ya."

I remembered that morning. I had thought about it every day. He changed me so much. Were it not for meeting him, I would have stayed the same person: reserved Melissa. He had changed me into a stronger, braver person in my last few months.

"Daddy wasn't scared that day 'e met Mum. 'E was very confused. Mummy 'elped 'im, though."

I smiled at the barely-there memory of Jack saying that he didn't like cold cereal and asking so many questions of the three-hundred years he had missed.

"It 'asn't e'en been two weeks, but, don't tell anyone..."

It hadn't even been two weeks since I died? Why did it feel like a day, yet years at the same time?

"Sometimes, Daddy thinks 'e can feel Mummy 'round still. Ya know, 'ow she was always smilin', havin' ya on 'er 'ip, singin'..."

I smiled through the tears that clouded my eyes. I was still constantly on his mind.

I couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if I had been able to tell him that I loved him. Had death made him miss me, or had he truly cared about me all this time?

"'Course, I wasn't th' only one gettin' up in th' middle o' th' night, then."

I chuckled at his honesty. Whenever he caught himself getting vulnerable, he always reeled himself in quickly.

"If ya grow up t' be 'alf the woman she was, Sea Turtle, I'll be mighty proud o' ya."


	11. Smile

Chapter Eleven

Smile

**Lily Allen owns the title to this song. I just thought it fit the title perfectly.**

* * *

The days passed by slowly for Jack (were they years? He wasn't sure. They could have been, for all he knew). The only thing that helped him keep track was the days that the newspaper the came on Saturday and Sunday. How long had it been since the last newspaper came? He didn't know, nor did he care.

The more Jack looked at Amy, the more he realized how much his daughter looked like Melissa. Besides the brown eyes and brown hair, everything else was the same. She had left a reminder of her behind, he liked to think. He couldn't look at Amy without thinking of Melissa, the girl that he had been able to see transform into a woman.

Jack hated to admit to himself that he missed her. His co-workers and neighbors asked him how he was doing. He would say that he was doing alright. Never would he verbally admit that he missed her, not even to one of the Turners. Besides, they were sure he missed her – something that he hated.

He found himself getting headaches during the day when he was checking things out at the register. Jack supposed that was from lack of sleep – both from Amy and staying up at night, thinking about Melissa. He longed to get a good night's sleep. Jack couldn't help but wonder when that would be.

_When yer not th' only one takin' care o' th' Sea Turtle_, he thought to himself.

He didn't want to wave the white flag. Jack wanted to believe that he could take care of his daughter himself. He hated asking for help, and he would _not_ start with asking help to take care of _his_ daughter.

_What if ya don't get 'elp now?_ Jack asked himself. No one _'elpin' ya. No female influence..._

There was no female influence near him, though. Janice, the one who watched Amy during the day, was the closest thing to a mother figure that Amy would have through the years. She and her family would eventually move, though.

He was back to square one. Jack was discovering couldn't take care of Amy alone, but he didn't want to admit that he couldn't.

Kate said that he could live with them. He remembered her saying that at the wake that if they needed to live with them, they could.

That night, Jack decided to do just that.

* * *

Kate was up late the night of June 26. She found herself thinking of Melissa – not mourning her this time, she thought with a bizarre realization. Kate was thinking of Beckett. She hated him. No, hate was too kind of a word. So was loathing. He was the one responsible for Melissa's death. She loathed him with a burning passion that still stayed under her skin.

She wondered if he slept at night. How did he feel about killing Melissa? Did he regret it? Was he – God forbid – satisfied?

She wondered what she would do if she ever saw him again. Would she ask him why he did it? Would she scream at him? Would she do what he did to Melissa? No, she was sure that he could never kill a person. She would just be putting someone through what she and Jack were dealing with.

It didn't mean that she didn't think that Beckett didn't deserve it, though.

She heard her phone ringing that night. She couldn't hear "You're Beautiful" drifting through the air without thinking of "Goodbye My Lover" and Melissa.

Hearing that one thing that reminded Kate of her made her miss Melissa all that much more; her blonde hair, beautiful smile, and gentle personality. She wondered how it was that one simple thing could bring back so many emotions.

With Will sitting up (he must not have fallen asleep, either), she reached for her cell phone on the nightstand. The caller ID said "Jack".

Jack. Relief swept over her. It would be good to talk to him.

She remembered the last time that the last time he called, Melissa was going into labor. Another memory brought back another wave of emotions.

She opened the phone and sat up. "Hello?"

"Ah, Katie!" Jack said.

It was so good to hear his voice again. Before she knew it, she was smiling – the first time in a week and a half.

"Jack!" Kate said, smiling. She then wondered what the reason for the call was. "What's going on?"

"Just a li'l chat," he said nonchalantly.

Will turned on the lamp next to them. Light filled the room.

Kate looked at the clock. It read 11:11.

"This late?" she asked.

"Sure. Why not?"

She wondered how he could be the first person to make her smile.

_That's right_, she silently told him. _You're Captain Jack Sparrow._

"I'll start, then. How are you doing?" she asked.

"Just fabulous," Jack said.

Kate knew that either he was still in denial, or he didn't want to talk about. She guessed the latter.

"'Ow are _you_, Katie?"

"I've been better," she answered honestly.

"Wonderful," Jack said.

She frowned. Why was he acting so strange?

"Listen, I need a favor."

She immediately braced herself. Favors that Jack needed were never good.

"It depends on what it is," she replied.

"Well, I don't have the same amount of human interaction that I 'ad when Mel was 'round."

_You mean, before she died_, Kate thought, feeling a tug at her heart.

"It's really rather borin' o'er 'ere," he continued. "So, I 'ave a proposal for you, dear Katie."

She could just imagine him using his hand gestures as he walked around the living room talking to her.

Kate knew what the proposal was. It was the same one she had proposed to him a week ago.

"'Ow would ya like t' 'ave Cap'n Jack live with ya?"

She couldn't help but laugh. Only he could say that and make her smile at a time like this. She was grateful for him.

They had opened their house to him for a reason: they wanted him to know that they would always be here for him. He was accepting their hospitality, feigning that it wasn't under the circumstances that Kate had in mind. She knew better, though.

"I'd be honored," she said.

At that moment, Kate realized that one day, everything would be alright.

* * *

**To:** Jack

**From:** Kate

**Subject:** A Game of Twenty Questions

**Date:** Friday, June 27, 2008 12:42 PM CST

Hey, you.

I realized after we hung up last night that we have no details set up. Hence the subject.

What day do you want to move in?

How are you going to get here?

Am I going to have to fly to Minnesota to help you?

How will you take care of Amy on the way to New York?

Get back to me as soon as you can. This week wouldn't be good if you need my help to drive (which I assume you do – you'll have boxes, not things that you can put in a suitcase and take across the country). Photo shoot is Wednesday. I'm not looking forward to them. It's hard to act carefree right now.

On a lighter note, you made me smile last night. It was the first time I've smiled since...well, you know. Thank you, Jack.

Looking_very_ forward to seeing you again,

Kate

* * *

**To:** Kate

**From:** Jack

**Subject:** Yes to the Third

**Date:** Friday, June 27, 2008 8:54 EST

Hello, me darling.

By, the way, you asked four questions, not twenty. And here are my four answers:

The sooner the better! Unless you'd like to postpone my presence for any reason. Doubtful. Why would you postpone _me_?

I plan on having you drive me _all the way_ to New York. Think of the laughs we could have, Katie. Nothing but a thousand miles and three days between us. A wonderful thought, isn't it?

Unless you can somehow magically teleport yourself here or would like to waste time by driving, you'll want to fly here.

I guess we'll be making lots of stops.

Doesn't it sound like a fun few days we'll have, Katie? Just like the old days.

Your's,

Captain Jack Sparrow

* * *

**To: **Jack 

**From:** Kate

**Subject:** Plan on Friday

**Date:** Friday, June 28, 2008 7:30 AM CST

Hey again.

Alright, since you'll be having boxes that you'll need to bring with, I have a last-minute flight booked. I'll be landing at MSP on July 5 at 3:30 in the afternoon, and I'll (hopefully) be there a little before 5:00.

Please don't make me wait, either. I want to leave the next morning. Pack everything and talk to your boss and landlord.

Will is going to go get a crib for the guest bedroom while we're gone. There's already a bed in there for you.

Alright, stop reading this. Go pack what you need to.

Kate

* * *

**As you can see, it's starting to lighten up. But could seeing Amy bring feelings back for Kate? Something tells me a serious talk between them is on the horizon. **

**And what _could_ those two talk about on the way to New York? There's more than a thousand miles of road, they have to pass the time somehow.**


	12. Simple

Chapter Twelve

Simple

**Thank you for the one hundred reviews! Here's some chocolate for you all while reading the next chapter.**

* * *

Jack finished packing the final box of his and Amy's belongings Thursday evening. He called the final box the Melissa Box. Anything that reminded Jack of her was in that box – the movie they made, her CDs, her movies that she loved...everything. 

Out of sight, out of mind. Jack didn't want to be reminded of Melissa. He was going to put them somewhere in the closet where he wouldn't see them for years. He needed to move on. Moving to New York meant it was time to start things over again. He would get _another_ beginning, one that he preferably wouldn't have had. He was fine staying here in Minnesota and have Melissa alive, taking care of their Sea Turtle. This was life, though, and if Jack had discovered one thing about it, it did not go according to plan.

It would be bittersweet to see Kate again. He loved seeing her whenever she visited, but, again, he'd rather not see her under these circumstances.

_Ye'll 'ave days with Katie, though, Jackie!_ he thought positively. _Think o' all th' fun ya could 'ave with 'er!_

All the ways that he could annoy her brought a smile to her face.

_It'll distract 'er_, he thought. _There's me excuse._

* * *

Will saw Kate off to Minnesota on July 5. As he hugged and kissed her, this reminded her of the ten days she had gone off to Paris for the Yves Saint Laurent show. It would (thankfully) be less than ten days this time. It was a harsh goodbye all the same. She had spent most of the time after Melissa's death not talking to him. Kate couldn't help but wonder if he took it personally. She hoped not – it was just her way of coping, drawing back. 

"Bye," she whispered before kissing him one last time. "I'll think of you on Monday."

Monday was July 7. A year ago they had gotten engaged. They wouldn't spend it together, but helping Jack was more important to her right now. It could be worse. It could have been their first wedding anniversary. She realized that would mark three months that she hadn't seen Melissa. A knot started to form in her stomach at the thought of having to go without her that long. It hadn't even been a month and going day-to-day was difficult for her. How would she be in the following months?

"I'll think of you until you come back," he said softly. "I love you."

She nodded and tucked her hair behind her ear. "I love you, too."

She went on board the plane and, for the first time, dreading going back to Minnesota. All the memories were there of her and Melissa growing up. Her grave was there. She wasn't sure if she could be in the same city as all those things and bear to leave.

Would she tell Jack on the trip what Melissa had meant to tell him on that fateful day?

Only time would tell.

* * *

At 5:00, the taxi pulled up to Amy and Jack's house. Kate looked at it with a different eye now. Melissa was no longer inside. It was just Amy and Jack. 

Kate had listened to her iPod in an effort to distract herself from what lay ahead. With her luck, the song "What Hurts the Most" by Rascal Flatts came on. She thought about changing it, but decided it fit the mood in too eerie of a way.

_I can take the rain on the roof of this empty house_

_That don't bother me_

She had kept her head down ever since she had gone down the street that Melissa was killed. Tears brimmed her eyes at the very thought that that was where Beckett had done what he wanted.

_I can take a few tears now and then and just let them out_

_I'm not afraid to cry every once in a while_

_Even though going on with you gone still upsets me_

A few minutes before 5:00, the taxi pulled up to Amy and Jack's house. Kate looked at it with a different eye now. Melissa was no longer inside. It was just Amy and Jack.

She played with the medallion around her neck as she stepped out of the car and went to get her suitcase from the back seat. She pulled it out, paid the cab driver, and went to ring the doorbell. She remembered Jack saying the night of Dani's party that he wanted to press the doorbell and Will, exasperated, said, "Then press it."

Melissa had gotten drunk that night. It was a night that she could only now look back with a smile, while at the same time, feeling that her heart was being tugged at.

_There are days every now and again I pretend I'm okay_

_But that's not what gets me_

Why had just one simple memory pulled at her heartstrings like that? It was a happy memory, Melissa finally was loosened! Why did she want it erased right now?

_What hurts the most_

_Was being so close_

That memory wasn't nearly as painful as remembering Melissa's last night on Earth. Their last words were "I love you" out of fun, and she planned on telling Jack that evening that she still loved him.

_And having so much to say_

_And watching you walk away_

She was sure that she knew what Jack's reply would have been. Melissa needed to tell him that before she died, though.

She needed to do lots of things before she died.

_And never knowing_

_What could have been_

_And not seeing that loving_

_Is what I was tryin' to do._

_It's hard to deal with the pain of losing you everywhere I go_

_But I'm doin' it_

_It's hard to force that smile when I see our old friends and I'm alone._

She put her iPod away before Jack answered the door – partly because she couldn't handle the rest of that song.

She saw Jack open the door. The first time seeing him made her want to cry. A lump constricted her throat. She wanted so badly to throw her arms around his neck and cry into his chest. Kate couldn't afford to break down in front of him.

Why was she feeling so upset right now? She was decent yesterday.

"Hi," Kate said, forcing a smile she didn't feel onto her lips.

Jack grinned. "Welcome to my 'umble carbuncle, Katie."

Kate didn't know what to think at those six words. It wasn't that he said them, it was _how_ he said them. He seemed so carefree. It hadn't even been two weeks after Melissa's death and he was smiling and welcoming her into his "humble carbuncle".

She knew that there was a time to be happy, but this was not it. With that simple line, it seemed that he was forgetting her already. That was the last thing that Melissa would ever be to her.

Frustrated with his attitude, he dragged her suitcase behind her and entered the house. It was hard to believe that one month ago, it was inhabited by someone so full of life. She wondered how Jack went day to day here. Maybe that was another one of his reasons for moving: he couldn't stand the memories imprinted into the walls like a child's hand in Play-Doh.

As Kate looked around the room, she realized she didn't want to be here. Kate wanted to pack the boxes and go in Melissa's car and leave now.

She needed to do this, though. If she wouldn't do it for herself, she would do it for Melissa, who, if she could see what Jack had done, would be smiling.

* * *

Jack noticed that Kate's mood had improved since he saw her last time. There was still something different about her, but it was a far cry from what she was last week. He could tell she was trying to hide his true feelings. They both were. Jack was just better at it. 

When she had seen Amy, sadness swept over her eyes. Kate picked Amy up from her rocker and put her on her hip. "She looks so much like her mother."

"She does," Jack had agreed. "Thank goodness she received my dashin' good looks."

He could have sworn he saw an eye roll.

After Amy was put down to bed, the two of them sat on the couch. The last time the two of them were alone was when they had gone shooting out in the winter. Jack remembered that time with a grin. It had been so cold that night and they had yet _another_ tiff – that time, it was about Melissa.

Which, of course, had been provoked by his feelings towards Kate.

Jack grabbed a bottle of rum he had gotten yesterday, one of the last bottles in the house. He went to sit next to Kate on the couch, who looked like she was thinking about Melissa.

"My tremendous intuitive sense of the female creature informs me that you are troubled," Jack said, taking a seat next to her.

She shrugged and took the bottle of rum from him and took a swig. He was surprised that she took a drink, but he doubted she cared right now.

"I miss her," Kate said.

She wondered what the ration was to her saying that to her thinking that.

"Being here just brings back so many memories. We all had so much fun here. Just seven months ago, we were in that kitchen, baking Christmas cookies. God, four months ago, even, we were here when Melissa was going into labor. I can't imagine what it must be like for you every day. She lived with you."

He was fine for the most part when he wasn't taking care of Amy.

She sighed and took the rum bottle from him and took another swig, then returned it to him. "You're a bad influence on me."

"Do tell, dearie."

"The only times I've drank have been in your presence. The first was three days before my wedding, the second was the day of my wedding, and the third was now."

Like he cared?

"It's not as if I'll call th' cops on ya, love."

Kate put her head on his shoulder. Jack realized how vulnerable and distressed she truly was with that simple action. Was he going to be the good man that he apparently could be when the time called for it?

Of course not.

He put his hand around her shoulder and pulled her to him. "I do believe, Katie, that yer quite the distressin' damsel...rather, damsel in distress, at the moment."

All damsels in distress needed to be rescued, didn't they?

"I think that you are distressing to a certain degree yourself," Kate replied softly.

Silence filled the room for a brief room. Jack wondered what had put that thought into her head.

"'N' why do ya think that I'm the one in distress?" he asked, playfulness grazing his tone.

"When you miss someone, it means you love them."

She said it so softly, yet with all the confidence in the world. What made her so confident that he was distressing because he missed Melissa?

False. Completely false. Full of hogwash, that girl was. Jack missed Melissa, but he by no means loved her. He had liked her. As a friend.

_Why_ must this girl that sat beside him be the one to twist things?

"Glad to 'ear ya miss Mel, then," he replied.

* * *

Kate didn't know what she had expected when she had said that to Jack. She didn't expect him to profess his love of Melissa to her. He would never admit that he loved a woman – if he ever did, that is. Kate could see something between them, though. She wasn't sure what it was. It seemed like love, but a different sort of love. 

It was the kind of love that only Jack and Melissa could have.

She had gone to bed that night in the guest bedroom. She realized then, as her mind decided to wander to memories of Melissa, that Kate had thought about her slightly less when she was around Jack.

_Ironic_, she thought. _The one person that's not mourning her is the one that distracts you._

She was exhausted from everything – Melissa's death, the burden that she carried of her secret, and the fact that life would never quite be the same. Kate knew that one day life would return to nearly the way that things were before Melissa died, but how long would that be? A month? Six months? A year? More?

Why did Kate feel that she was going backwards? Ever since she had gotten the call from Jack a few days ago, she had felt that she was moving forward and learning how to deal with the death. Now, she felt like she was before she talked to Jack.

Kate had just one question she wanted to know: Why was moving on never easy?

* * *

The top forty radio station played softly on the nightstand. Will sat in his and Kate's bedroom, uploading pictures from a memory card onto the laptop. He couldn't remember the last time that he had emptied the card. Time was getting hard to judge now, with Kate being all but a stone. She noticed that she had improved over the last few days, thankfully. He had wondered when she was going to start moving on. 

She was at Jack's house now. Will wondered how Kate and Jack were doing together. Things hadn't always been easy for them. He had a feeling that it would help their friendship.

Will wanted to help Jack, but he couldn't help but think of the two things that had severed what bond they did have. The two loves of Will's life (yet at the same time, it was the same woman, he thought eerily) had kissed Jack, and he hadn't apologized, nor did he feel remorse.

The odd thing was that Will had forgiven him so long ago. He wasn't sure when the bond had been mended. Perhaps it was the day of the wedding, when Jack had been, for once, honest with everything. Whenever it was, they had never truly sat down and talked. Even the wedding, it was just a talk that Jack would do once in his lifetime. Will wanted to talk about anything – even the few days aboard the_Black Pearl_.

He focused on the computer screen. The download was almost done. He wondered if he had emptied the pictures onto the computer before or after Melissa's death.

Will got chills when he saw that this was the first time he had put pictures on the computer since the day Melissa died. He saw her face that he was slowly starting to forget, her light blonde hair straight, per usual. In some, her light blue eyes had a spark to them that captivated him, like the ones holding her three-month-old, Amy, and the ones with himself and Kate. The ones with Jack and Amy were duller. It was almost as if Melissa was sad, but trying so hard to hide it. Will couldn't help but wonder what she was thinking at that moment that the picture was taken.

He looked at the pictures for what seemed like minutes. Perhaps they were. It was just too eerie to know that just one day after they were taken, Melissa had left Earth. Will found it hard to believe that life could change so fast.

He focused on one picture in particular, one where Melissa was holding Amy on her lap. Her daughter gazed into the camera with wide brown eyes, the same shade as her father, but the same shape as her mother. Melissa had a smile that he had never seen on her before. Amy had made her so happy. She was the light of her life.

It pained Will beyond words to know that Amy would never know the mother that loved her so deeply.

* * *

Everyone looks peaceful while they sleep. It's something about drifting off into somewhere that takes you away from reality for a few hours that makes people look so peaceful. 

Kate looked peaceful. Apparently, it wasn't even two weeks after my death (was that still right. or had more than two weeks passed?), and here Kate was, sleeping, looking as peaceful as a dove.

I wonder how hard she was taking it after my death. Was she in denial still? Was she angry?

I wondered why she was here. Was Jack moving in with the Turners? It would be the best thing for everyone. I wondered how long it took Jack to realize that tackling parenting and a death at the same time wasn't a good mix.

I sighed and kept my eyes on Kate, despite the fact that it was hard to see her in the middle of the night. Seeing the man you loved with your daughter was completely different than seeing your best friend. Here, with Kate, I felt like she appeared: peaceful. With Jack and Amy, I felt heartbroken.

Friends and men seemed to have those effects on women.

"Kate," I said softly, sitting next to her on the edge of the bed. This was my third time talking to someone who I knew couldn't hear me. I knew that I could say whatever I wanted, but why did it feel that it mattered more now?

"I hope that you don't miss me," I said. "I want you to remember me, but don't mourn me. I'm alright, Katie."

I smiled. "Actually, I did something that you would be very proud of: I haunted Beckett."

I glanced out the window. The moon was half full. Even in the middle of the night, I could hear some cars on the highway.

"It's really not so bad being dead. It's just under unfortunate circumstances...and an unfortunate age."

I wondered if Kate had told Jack yet about my secret. My guess was that she hadn't, especially if it was two weeks after my death like I thought it could be.

"Please don't forget to tell Jack," I said. "I'm sorry that this is your burden to bear, but I need you to do this for me. Someday, he needs to know."

I wondered if she would be able to feel me if I touched her. In case she could, I wanted her to have a reminder of me when she woke up. I gently touched her cheek. She remained still.

"Make sure Jack doesn't get lost in New York," I said, a smile tugging at my lips.


	13. Packing Up

Chapter Thirteen

Packing Up

**Thank you for the reviews!**

**By the way, I have to Sabsz, who is now my beta. If you're up for a good ol' piratey, JackOC fic, check out Tortugan Beginnings by her.**

**By the way, JACK is a real radio station in Minnesota. I _finally_ put two and two together. Haha. :P**

* * *

Kate woke up the next morning feeling refreshed, though she wasn't sure why. She didn't even feel a bit disorientated, as she had when she and Will visited Jack and Melissa. Kate wasn't sure exactly what was different – she felt like some sort of hole had been filled. But how? 

She heard the door leading to the garage closing. At that, she decided to get a start on the day. Someone was already up before her. It was probably Melissa, forgetting something in the car. Maybe it was Will or Jack coming in from getting the paper. What use was there laying around?

Kate got up and went down the stairs that ended in the living room. The first thing she saw were boxes.

Those boxes brought her back to the reality that she had been able to escape from. Melissa was not here. Kate wasn't here for a visit, she was here to help Jack move to New York.

She could have sworn on her life that Melissa was still here. Why, though? Kate knew yesterday that Melissa was dead. Kate had known for exactly three weeks that she was dead.

Now that she had a moment to recall why; she had a dream about her, one that seemed so real. It was about Melissa. She was talking to Kate; about what, exactly, she couldn't remember. She swore that Melissa even touched her.

Kate felt sick to her stomach. She truly thought that Melissa was alive for a brief moment. The harsh reality was sinking in now. She wasn't sure what she wanted to do first – cry or scream.

The door to the garage opened. Kate just looked at Jack with all the fury and hurt that developed in just a few moments time. Jack looked puzzled when he saw her.

"My, isn't that a pout we invented," Jack said, going to pick up a box next to her. "Who're ya imitatin'? Angelina Jolie? Scarlett Johanson?"

Could this man not take anything seriously?

He picked up a box, held it, and looked at her some more. "Ye're really makin' me want to kiss ya, love. Now, fer yer dear 'usband's sake --"

Kate wasn't sure what made her snap at him. It could easily have been the entire situation – the harsh reality of someone you love not being there and that, today, they were leaving the house where so many memories were made

Or it could have just as easily been that Jack didn't seem to be mourning Melissa at all.

"Go," she said to him, her heart pounding in her chest.

"Kiss ya? Very well, then."

He moved his head towards her, trying to brush his lips across her's, but she shoved him away.

"Go!" she said louder, her voice breaking at the end. Tears welled in her eyes.

"Won't 'esistate to yell when we're packed 'n' ready, then," he muttered as she walked up the stairs.

Her chest felt tight. She found it hard to breathe from the lump that was forming in her throat.

Kate was angry at herself for not realizing that Melissa was no longer here. She hadn't been here for three weeks. It should have sunk in for Kate by now.

Was she in denial still? She didn't know.

As she threw her clothes into a blurring suitcase, she didn't much care.

* * *

"Go!" Jack mimicked Kate, stuffing a box into the trunk angrily. He turned around and looked at the plain brown garage wall. "Well, excuse me fer 'aving ya look rather attractive, darlin'!" 

Why were women such pendulums? They could be laughing with their friends one moment and screaming their lungs out at men the next. And what had he done wrong? Jack had given her a compliment. Bugger, she looked attractive in the morning! How many women could he say that to?

Well, the anger contributed to her attractiveness. Women always did look quite attractive when they were angry.

He didn't know that Kate could get so upset over a compliment. Melissa always liked compliments.

It took Jack a moment to realize that it had been three weeks since Melissa died. Had three weeks truly gone by? It seemed like just yesterday they were at the hospital, yet it felt like ages since he had seen her.

He sighed, trying to wipe his mind from the memories. Jack wasn't sure what would be better: having never met Melissa and be in Davy Jones' Locker, or meeting her and going through all this again.

Quite honestly, Jack didn't know the answer.

* * *

By 7:00, Kate and Jack were on the road. Jack was happy to see that leaving on a Sunday meant no traffic in Minneapolis and St. Paul. He grinned at the memory of him calling Minneapolis "Minnenpoles" the day that he and Melissa first met. 

Yet again, there was another memory that seemed so long ago. Was it really just a bit over a year that he met Melissa?

Time was a mysterious thing. It had the ability to make the whole world stop, and it could make years flash by you as if they never happened.

While in the car, Jack put the station to one that was called JACK, which was a variety station that played music from the eighties to current chart-toppers. A gentle piano opening started filling the car.

Jack looked over at Kate out of curiosity. She had hardly spoken through the trip. He couldn't tell why, though – was she angry at his "advances"? Sad at the fact that today marked three weeks that Melissa had died?

Kate looked different now, though. She almost looked provoked. Yet another thing was driving her up the wall, and for once, it didn't seem to be him.

"I'm surprised you don't know this song," she said, her voice strained.

"Evidently, I do not, Mrs. Turner," he said.

"Wonderful. You won't mind if we turned, then."

It wasn't a question – it was an order.

"Someone took a swig o' hormone juice today," he muttered.

A cold realization came over him. He looked at her stomach in fear. "Ye're not pregnant 'n' waitin' to tell the father o' yer whelpish child, are ya?"

Stopping at a light, Kate looked over at him, confused as she could be. "Out of all the things I could be angry about right now, you think I'm pregnant and hormonal?"

Her confused expression changed to frustration. He suppressed a sigh of exasperation. _Why_ were women so hard to understand? If they weren't hormonal, they just decided to complain about something – anything. Which was it?!

"Ya know, if ye're waitin' to tell the Whelp...I can keep a secret," Jack said.

"I am not pregnant!" she said. "I'm a bitch today because I'm livid about what Beckett did to Melissa!"

_Oh, dear_, Jack thought, bracing himself for the angry rant he knew he was going to get._Better get comfortable, Jackie. This one'll take a while._

"I had a dream about her last night, and it seemed so real. God, she was talking to me...I think she might have said something about you and New York. I swear that she touched me. My cheek, maybe. And I woke up this morning and I saw the boxes...and that's when I realized that Melissa wasn't there. And you're moving in with me because..."

He wanted to hear Kate say why exactly he was moving in with her. Jack thought about daring her, but he wasn't looking forward to facing the consequences that would bring. Instead, he decided to fill in the blank for her.

"Ya missed me e'er so much 'n' ya couldn't 'elp but offer yer 'ome to me, despite that yer 'appily married to dear William."

Kate rolled her eyes. "That's exactly why, Jack," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Glad to see we've come to an understandin', love. I would like to know what triggered that rant o' yer's, which made no sense, seein' as it didn't pertain to this 'ere song."

Kate was quiet for a moment. Jack knew that silence among women was a dangerous thing.

"I always used to think of Melissa when I would hear this," she said. "The song is called 'When You're Gone' by Avril Lavigne. It came out at the end of the summer, the same time that both of us were changing so much. I was getting married and moving to New York, and she was staying in Minnesota, carrying your child and trying to get through her first year of college."

Now it made sense. Jack remembered reading a few e-mails with "When You're Gone" in it.

He had one more question: why were women so sentimental?

"Well, isn't that lovely!" Jack said. "Ya know what song always made me think o' ya?"

"Could it be 'I'm a Bitch' by Meredith Brooks?"

Jack had never heard it, but the title seemed to describe Kate to a T.

"Right ye are, love," Jack said.

He was happy to see that in the last day, he managed to semi-distract her from Melissa's death. It was what both of them needed to do. Talking about something, anything, was best for the both of them. He was surprised that she appeared to be so easily distracted, though.

Sure, Kate wanted a distraction, but they both knew that she needed one to move on.

* * *

The miles dragged on. Kate started to get bored with the length of the road trip. Amy cried on-and-off during the ten hours on the road. Towards the end of the trip, she was sure that she would go insane with a crying four-month-old and Jack asking every question one could ever think of -- "What's the best bar in New York? Is my room goin' to be next to yer's? 'Ow much longer until we get to stop fer the night?" 

She felt like she was dealing with two children in the car.

As distracted as Kate had been at times, she still managed to think about Melissa. She couldn't get the dream out of her head that she had last night. It still crushed her to think about it. The dream seemed so real that she could have sworn that she was having an actual conversation with Melissa.

Wait...hadn't she said "Make sure Jack doesn't get lost in New York" in Kate's dream? Or with all this talk of New York, had she thought that was what Melissa said?

Thinking of New York made Kate think of Will. She missed him from the moment that she boarded the plane to Minnesota. Kate needed him today, though, for everything. She wanted him to hold her when she realized that Melissa was no longer here – not to mention that he would keep her sane through this road trip.

At 5:00, Jack and Kate pulled into a McDonalds drive-through for dinner in Indianapolis. They ate in the car while looking for a last-minute hotel for the night. She settled for the Drury Inn and pulled into the parking lot. Jack got Amy from the backseat, as well as his duffel. Kate got her suitcase and towed it behind her as the three of them went into the hotel and checked in.

Jack put the carrier on the floor and took Amy out of it, holding her.

The woman at the desk, wearing a name tag that said "Autumn", started assigning them a room. She had raven black hair that was pulled back into a sleek, low ponytail. Autumn looked at Amy and smiled. "Such an adorable baby! What's her name?"

"Amy Pearl," Jack grinned.

"I don't know who she looks like more – her mom or her dad."

Kate's heart nearly stopped. This woman thought that this child was their's?

Maybe Autumn was just saying that out of courtesy. She could very well say that to everyone that came in here that had a baby. Besides, anyone could think that Amy was their baby with the brown hair.

Kate was sure that Melissa would have glowed over a compliment like that. She would have thanked the woman, then smiled at Amy.

"She looks like her mom," Kate said, thinking of Melissa all the while.

"Ah, yes, but thank goodness she received my dashin' good looks," Jack said.

Why did he feel the need to say that twice in the span of twenty-four hours? Was it, like the first time, to lighten the mood?

"Alright, you two get a king bed in room 215." Autumn slid them a maroon card and papers to sign on the wooden counter.

Kate's cheeks flushed. She didn't assume that they were married, did she?

"C-Could we get more than one bed?" Kate asked, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. Just the very thought of sleeping in the same bed with Jack repulsed her.

She sneaked a look at Jack, who was doing nothing but grinning like an idiot. Kate wanted to hurt him – _very_ badly – to have him get that look off his face.

Autumn looked flustered, almost as if she expected them to be a couple. It made sense, Jack was carrying Amy and Kate was with them.

"All the family rooms are taken," Autumn said. "I'm sorry."

Kate wondered what they appeared to look like to Autumn. A couple with a child and a relationship on the rocks, despite the fact that he was thirteen years older than Kate?

She bit her tongue. Instead of demanding that Autumn try and find a room, she decided to deal with it. This is what she got for not making reservations.

"It's alright," Kate said, trying to be nonchalant. Inside, though, she was about ready to hurt someone – whether it was Autumn or Jack, she wasn't sure. She was leaning more towards Jack, though, simply because he had the look of an idiot plastered on his face.

Kate signed the papers and paid the eighty-five dollar fee for the night, then went to the elevator with Jack. The dully reflective doors closed once they were in the elevator.

"What a treat," Jack grinned.

"Shut up," she said, shooting him daggers.

* * *

Amy had fallen asleep at around 7:00. Jack and Kate were exhausted, but they stayed awake until 8:30. She wasn't sure why Jack had, but she was trying to stay awake longer than him so that she didn't have to hear any smart comments about sharing a bed together once they got settled. 

Kate changed into her chemise in the bathroom. The tiles were cold against her feet. The hotel room had been a comfortable temperature, but the bathroom was freezing.

She wished she hadn't brought a chemise. Kate didn't have any other sleepwear with her. At home, she had a few pairs of old t-shirts and flannel shorts, but never thought to bring them. She didn't think that she would have to share a _bed_, though.

Kate began to hate herself for not being prepared for things.

She emerged from the bathroom, half-tugging at the hem. It wasn't anything that Melissa would have considered "skanky", but it was something that she wouldn't have chosen around to wear around Jack. Come to think of it, though, she had worn less around him.

She crawled under the covers on her side of the bed and lay on her back, arms crossed over her chest. Jack was already on his side. When had he changed?

She noticed with a cringe that he was shirtless.

_Good God, please make another bed appear. Please!_ she prayed.

She knew that would never happen. This was just yet another sick joke that made them be closer than she would ever have liked.

"I don't bite, love," she heard Jack chuckle. "Besides, if I remember correctly, a year ago ya would 'ave killed fer this."

She flushed for the second time today. Kate hated to admit it, but a year ago, when she was selfish and had taken everything for granted, she would most likely have taken advantage of the moment.

"A year changes everything, Jack," she said.

She noticed the TV was playing softly. The curtains had been closed. The only light was the bedside lamp that was on. She wondered if he purposefully made it more relaxed (she would _not_ use the word romantic, she simply would not!).

"Ya still don't have that lust bottled up inside ya?" Jack asked, lust lacing his voice, as he propped himself on one elbow.

Kate glanced at his chest. She remembered that chest. Last year at the cabin, she put her hands that chest. She had known what she was doing then. Kate had known it was wrong. She still cringed to this day when she thought about how badly she hurt Melissa and Will.

Kate felt even more awful about it, now that Melissa died. Kate apologized, yes, but at times she didn't think that was enough, especially right now.

"No," she said bitterly.

"Sure ya do," he egged.

She couldn't help but wonder why he was coming onto her so strongly now. Did he think that three weeks was an appropriate "mourning" time for him, and that it would seem acceptable if he moved on to someone else?

"I don't think so," she said, rolling over, her back to him.

She was frustrated for so many reasons. Melissa loved him so much and Jack had taken the only person that truly cared about him for granted. Now he thought that he could flirt with Kate?!

She wanted to tell him so badly that Melissa still loved him. Kate bit her tongue though. She knew that there would come a time when saying it was right.

"This is the closest you will ever come to sleeping with me," she said to him, attempting to distract herself. "Enjoy it, Jack Sparrow."

"Oh, believe me, darlin'." He put a hand on her stomach, drawing her closer. "I will."


	14. The Journey

Chapter Fourteen

The Journey

**Sorry for the wait!**

**Thank you for the reviews, and a big thank you to Sabsz for being my beta:P **

* * *

_Will was exhausted. He hardly slept last night. He had seen something that was etched so deep in his mind, he wasn't sure if it would ever erase. Kate was kissing Jack behind his back._

_He suspected that there was something between Jack and Kate. Their actions weren't necessarily friendly – they always seemed sketchy, as if they were trying to hide something._

_Will hadn't wanted to believe it, though. He lost one woman to Jack Sparrow, he couldn't bear to lose another, especially not Kate. Will loved her so deeply already._

_He was sitting at the breakfast bar at the cabin, bending the flap of a pink sugar packet back and forth. He wondered if he creased it too many times, if it would break._

_Everything seemed to break once it was put under too much pressure._

"_I said, 'are you alright?'" a voice asked while a hand was being placed on his._

_Will looked up to see Melissa's blue eyes focused on his brown ones. He didn't know that she was there. How long had she been trying to get his attention?_

"_I apologize," he said softly._

_Will realized that Melissa didn't know about last night. There wasn't a way she could be that cheery and hear the news. He knew that she would find out one way or another – it was best to say it now._

"_Did you hear Kate and I arguing last night?" Will asked, his eyes remaining on the packet._

_Melissa looked intrigued, a hint of worry grazing over her face. "No. What happened?"_

"_It was Jack. They were downstairs. They almost..."_

_Will didn't feel like he could say it. He hated confirming that last night was a cruel reality._

"_Made love," he finished._

_Melissa looked crushed in every sense of the word. Her face fell and her eyes filled with tears. She seemed like she would fall apart at any moment, but was trying not to._

_Melissa was failing miserably._

"_What?" she breathed, disbelief sweeping her face._

"_I saw them together," he added softly, almost to himself. "They didn't, though."_

_It wasn't before long that a tear rolled down Melissa's cheek. Another fell, and another fell after that. A floodgate opened. Melissa was as hurt as he was last night, perhaps even more. She trusted both of them – Will only trusted one._

"_Will!" she said. She hugged him, crying on his shoulder._

_All he could do was wrap his arms around her. He stroked her hair gently. Will knew that something as minute as that wouldn't help. He supposed it was the thought that counted, though._

"_I know," he said. "I can't believe it, either._

_Melissa broke away from him and wiped her eyes with a napkin. "Y-Yesterday, I...I saw Kate's blog. It said that she was in love with Jack. I-I was going to tell you, but I was too...shocked."_

_Will wasn't angry at Melissa. She was protecting him. Were he in her shoes, Will would have done the same thing. The thing that bothered him was that it was such a secret between Jack and Kate. Will knew that they weren't quite friends, but why did Kate feel like she had to go behind his back? Couldn't she have told him that they were finished before doing what she had nearly done with Jack?_

"_Are you okay?" Melissa asked. "I mean...it must have been hard to see that."_

You don't know the half of it_, Will thought._

"_I'm alright if you're doing alright," he said._

"_I'm not alright," she said softly._

"_Then I suppose I'm not doing alright, either."_

_Before Will even knew it, he was kissing Melissa Lewes as tenderly as he once did with Kate._

* * *

The dream woke Will with a shock. At first, he was confused. Was he at the cabin? Was he relieving that hellish weekend again? 

Blue walls...his and Kate's bedroom...

No, thank God.

Will couldn't much understand having a dream about Cabin Weekend. What confused him even more was that he kissed Melissa. He never felt much of anything besides friendship with her.

What if they truly kissed, though? Would one kiss have changed things so much between them that he would never take Kate back? Would he and Melissa still be in love? Would he still be staying in Minnesota?

Why was he thinking about this? He was happily married. Will felt guilty at the thought of thinking about kissing another woman while with someone (he wondered how Kate had done that – she had done something more than kiss Jack while loving Will).

If he were to take back time, though, he wasn't sure if he would kiss Melissa. A kiss was just a kiss when it didn't hurt anyone. He didn't believe in revenge and wouldn't view a kiss with Melissa a "revenge kiss". It would have been a kiss out of curiosity, perhaps even one to let her know that she was still appreciated by someone.

Will forced himself to stop thinking about the dream. He was feeling unfaithful just at the thought of kissing her. Will loved his wife.

Everyone mourned in their own way. Perhaps thinking about the "what-ifs" subconsciously was his way.

* * *

Kate woke up the following morning next to Jack. She felt somewhat disgusted, him being the first thing that she saw in the morning, especially after him flirting with her last night. 

She was tired from all the driving that she did yesterday, and felt drained at just the thought of driving all day with Jack _again_. She slept next to the man, was it really necessary that she spend the rest of the day next to him in a car?

Kate thought not.

More than eager to get out of bed, she changed into a pair of shorts and an orange tank-top in the bathroom while Jack was still asleep. She brushed her bed hair and kept it down for the day. Kate had a feeling she would be putting it up – it was supposed to be hot in the Midwest and parts of the East today. It was 7:30 and looked like a blisteringly hot day, she noted as she looked out the window.

She put her chemise in her suitcase that was by the window and began to zip it up.

"Ya don't even give me the beauty o' 'avin' me wake up to ya?"

Jack startled her. She gasped, then turned around. Jack was sitting up and grinning at her. Her shock quickly turned to disgust.

"Of course not," she said, turning around to finish zipping her suitcase. "Why would I?"

"Because ya wake up next to dear William each mornin', save today, because you, love, were too busy wakin' up next to me."

She was, yet again, utterly confused at his twisting phrases.

"I love Will," she said simply.

Jack gasped in mock hurt. "Ye've crushed my _soul_, Katie! Ye've taken my 'eart 'n' ripped it out!"

Kate stood up and faced him. She was half annoyed at his joking, but was half amused and trying to hide a smile. "Get used to it."

Jack ran his fingers through his hair. "Love, do the words 'home pregnancy test' mean _anything_ to you?"

Her moodiness had nothing to do with her being pregnant – or lack thereof. She was simply getting dangerously close to wit's end after being in such close confines with Jack.

Kate threw him a blue shirt in his direction. "Put a shirt on," she said, not much wanting to see him half-undressed for much longer.

"The Jack Error Proof Test confirms it!" he exclaimed. "The moodiness, not want to see an _extremely_ attractive man without a shirt on --"

She could sense a trying day ahead of her.

"Just put your shirt on and get ready," she said through gritted teeth.

* * *

It was only when Amy, Jack, and Kate were in the lobby did Jack realize that today was July 7. He saw it on the page-a-day calender at the front desk. 

A year ago exactly had passed since Melissa gave a part of herself to Jack. He thought it was the night Amy was created. Melissa thought that it was the night of Dani's party that Amy was conceived. With the way he and Melissa argued, it would have been their only other time (besides the two mentioned) that Amy was conceived.

As Jack put Amy in the backseat before Kate came out from the hotel, he looked at Amy a bit longer than usual, his heartstrings being tugged while looking at his four-month-old. Kate was right: Amy did look so much like her mother.

He missed Melissa more than he would ever admit. Jack had a facade that clearly said, "I've moved on." It was clearer than the pirate brand on his arm that indicated him of his former life of piracy that he still yearned for.

It was clear that Kate missed Melissa deeply. So did Jack. He was just better at hiding it.

"Lookin' more like yer mum more 'n' more each day, Sea Turtle," Jack said to Amy. "I don't like that. Try 'n' look like yer father, would ya?"

Amy cooed, looking at her father all the while.

"I'll take that as a 'no'," he said. "Fine. At least yer stubborn like yer father."

He saw Kate coming towards the car. Jack ducked out of the backseat and went outside to meet the heat. He didn't mind the heat. It reminded him of the days of pirating in the Caribbean.

Bugger, he missed that. Missing two things at once that were so close to him was like being stabbed in the heart. Everything was so simple when he was a pirate. Nothing was simple when he was with Melissa.

Why did he miss Melissa so much, then?

Kate got in the driver's seat, while Jack took the passenger's. She pulled out of the parking lot and drove onto the highway, which was rush-hour at it's prime at 8:00 in the morning.

"I hope to make it to New York today," she said while in traffic.

"Why so anxious, dearie?" Jack inquired.

"I don't know. I just want to be back where things are a bit more normal. Minnesota reminded me so much of Melissa. All our memories were there. New York is home. You tend to escape from reality at home."

She was doing that again – baring her emotions. It made him uneasy to see a woman get emotional.

"Will it be normal with Cap'n Jack 'round?" he said in an attempt to distract her.

"I suppose you have a point," she said.

Of course he had a point. He was Captain Jack Sparrow.

"Late night talks with the whelp about the ol' piratin' days, discussing dear Davy Jones...now, love, 'ow many people can say that they talk 'bout that 'n' will ye, in fact, be able to say that yer 'ousehold will, indeed, be normal?"

Kate looked puzzled before saying, "No."

He grinned in satisfaction. He could just picture the fun he could have living with the Turners, especially when Kate became pregnant (she said July they would begin to try to have a family – whether or not a family was delayed due to Melissa's death was unknown to him). He could pester her about naming the child Jack or Jacqueline and give parenting advice as if he had been a former Father of the Year.

Just thinking about naming a child took Jack back to the time they fought about naming Amy. Melissa wanted to name their daughter Audrey. He shuddered at the very name.

He forced himself to try attempt to not focus on Melissa. The more he thought about her, the more he realized that he would never see her again.

It was something Jack would rather not think about.

"Will and I got engaged one year ago today," Kate said after a silence. "I guess that's why I want to try to be home today. Even if we're busy trying to get you settled, it would be nice to be with him."

"'N' this is indefinitely better than spendin' yer one year o' wedlock apart?" he asked.

"Indefinitely."

Jack shuddered. "Marriage. Weighs men down with a band o' gold."

"I wonder why it lifts women up, then," Kate said, a smile tugging at her lips.

"Because, darlin', women quite enjoy seein' men in pain."

* * *

By noon, Jack and Kate entered Pennsylvania. Kate was getting tired of being stuck in a car with Jack. He flipped through the radio dial to try and find a station. Much to her dismay, he found a station similar to JACK. It wouldn't have been so bad if he didn't sing along. 

During a commercial, Jack turned down the volume and kept his eyes forward.

"I love July 7," he grinned. "Filled with a wonderful memory."

Kate was confused why July 7 would be a wonderful memory for him. She remembered that Melissa called Kate that weekend, saying that Melissa needed her. That wasn't the weekend that Jack and Melissa...?

"Why?" she asked, half-expecting the answer.

"Melissa's purity, my darlin', was --"

Kate was right.

"You would be doing me a tremendous favor, Jack Sparrow, if you did not elaborate on my best friend's love life."

She began to grow angry at him. What made him think that he could _now_talk freely about what happened between him and Melissa?

_It's in his nature_, she tried to dismiss. _There's nothing you can do about it._

Whether that was from not mourning Melissa or from not wanting to be seen mourning her was in question.

"Elaboration ended," he said.

* * *

As Will spent the day alone in the apartment, he wondered if Amy, Jack, and Kate would arrive today. It was 2:00 only – he didn't think that Kate would call to confirm whether or not they would arrive. 

Part of Will was excited to see the three walk through the door, but the other part of him was apprehensive about having Jack in his home. He wondered nervously what all Jack could bring with him.

Jack was always a good source of entertainment, though, even if his humor did get to rather disturbing points.

Thinking of Jack made Will remember Melissa and the dream about her this morning. He wondered why he dreamed about her last night – and why he dreamed about _kissing_ her. Will never felt anything more for Melissa than friendship. He never had a reason to. Will was in love with Kate from the moment he met her.

He wouldn't let himself think about what might have happened between him and Melissa if they kissed.

_Why won't you even think about a what-if if you truly are in love with Kate?_ he questioned himself.

Will felt slightly unfaithful. He only loved two – essentially, one – people his entire life. He found it hard to imagine loving someone other than Elizabeth and Kate.

He knew the real reason why there was no point in thinking about a what-if. It was because Melissa was gone now, never to love anyone again.

* * *

Afternoon turned into early evening. Pennsylvania turned into New York. The miles until Jack saw New York for the first time ticked by. He was growing anxious to finally see it after the Turners had talked about it so. 

The relaxed guitar opening of Colbie Callait's "Bubbly" came on the radio while in central New York. Jack detested this song. It was so old!

Not to mention played to death when it had somewhat of a life.

He reached to change the dial and find another station, but Kate stopped him. "No, don't, Jack!"

Jack withdrew his hand cautiously. "'N' why should I listen to ya?"

"Because this song brings back memories," she said, a small smile on her lips. "Will and I listened to this song when we were moving to New York in September."

Oh, bugger. Memories of the female mind. A truly disastrous thing, they were.

Why did he ever indulge women in their memories?

* * *

Will looked at the clock by the television in the living room. It read 7:00. He doubted that Jack and Kate would arrive today. She would have called to say that she would by now. 

He proposed to Kate a year ago today in Duluth by the lighthouse. Will remembered he was so anxious that he could scarcely eat dinner that night. It wasn't that he had been nervous – he had always known that Kate would accept his proposal. It was the anticipation of _how_ she would say it.

An ecstatic yes, followed by a passionate kiss on the lips, was more than enough for him.

A ringing phone dragged Will out of his memory. He picked it up on the end table.

"Hello?" he answered.

"Look outside," the voice on the other end said.

The owner of the voice was...Kate?

He went to look down six stories down. Even from so far away, he couldn't mistake Jack and Kate. Jack was holding Amy – he could swear that even from here he could see annoyance plastered onto his face.

Will had never been so grateful to see them. Things would begin to change now. Kate begin to move on, with the help of someone who was equally close to her. The house would be more lively with Jack, and more active with Amy.

Never had he been more eager to start something new.

"Welcome home, you three," he smiled.


	15. Oh, Bugger

Chapter Fifteen

Oh, Bugger

**I'm sorry for the slow update! School...awful thing some days...**

**Thank you so much for the reviews!**

**Filler chapter. I thought it needed to lighten up a bit.**

* * *

The first thing that Jack wondered when he stepped into the apartment of Will and Kate Turner was how he was supposed to live here. It was clean, yet quite relaxed at the same time. 

With Amy, though, it would be anything but.

Hardwood floors replaced the carpet that he and Melissa had at their home. A light brown sofa was in their living room, and a round, light oak dining table was in their dining room.

This was the house that the two had talked about for nearly a year? It wasn't as grand as he had pictured it to be.

Come to think of it, he didn't know exactly what he imagined it to be.

"Welcome," Will said, going to greet him.

Whelp. He was always so serious.

"Thank ya fer lettin' me stay in this carbuncle o' yer's 'n' the misses," Jack said, resisting an urge to chuckle.

Will looked confused, glancing at Kate for some sort of explanation. He saw her shrug one shoulder, then turn to Jack.

"We should get Amy settled," she said.

He looked down to look at his daughter in the carrier. She was fast asleep. Children looked so precious when they slept.

Amy Pearl, the spitting image of her mother, were she a brunette, looked the most precious, he liked to think.

"Not much more we can do with 'er, dearie," he said to Kate with a grin.

She nodded. Kate looked tired.

"If it's all the same to you, I'm going to lay down," she said. "I've been driving all day --"

Jack pointed to himself and mouthed "with me" to Will, almost as if he was excusing her fatigue.

"And my own bed sounds more than inviting after a night in a hotel."

Ah, yes. He had spent that night sharing a bed with her. Best night's sleep he ever had.

Will nodded and kissed her before she went to her bedroom. Jack heard the soft closing of a door behind her.

Then it was him and Will. Being alone with the whelp was a truly awkward experience. Before him was the boy that always walked the straight-and-narrow and slightly strayed from the path only when time called for it.

It truly was a miracle that they could carry a conversation half the time.

Jack's arm was getting sore from holding Amy in her carrier for so long. He decided it would be a wise choice to put Amy in a crib.

"On second thought, William, a crib might be better fer the Sea Turtle," he said.

Will smiled and looked at Amy, then led Jack to what was now their room. The walls were white. A full bed was on one side of the room, and a crib was on the other side. It was a relatively small bedroom, smaller than what he and Melissa had when they shared a home.

Not that he was complaining.

Jack took Amy out of the carrier and put her in the crib, just like he did every evening now. He looked at her, a grin tugging at his lips, then went with Will out to the kitchen.

Jack hated, yet again, how much Amy was beginning to look like Melissa.

Will opened the silver refrigerator and handed him an amber bottle of – oh, thank goodness! -- Captain Morgan's.

"Kate said that it'd be best if we --"

Before he could finish that sentence, Jack eagerly took the rum from Will.

"What a kind soul that girl is," he said quickly and nonchalantly. He was more than happy to have a drink (or two...or more) after being without it for a day. Jack uncorked the rum and took a drink.

"How are you doing?" Will asked him gently.

Jack stopped drinking and looked at Will. He wasn't surprised that Will asked that – it was in his nature.

Just as it was in Jack's nature to mask anything that could make him vulnerable.

"Fine," he said. It was the response he always gave when people asked how he was doing after Melissa's death. What else could he say?

"You're doing so well after her death," Will said. He held Jack's gaze softly. Both he and Kate knew that he wasn't doing as well as he said he was.

Jack wanted to lie, though, for two reasons. One – he couldn't afford to be vulnerable now. He needed to be the strongest he had in quite a while. Two – maybe if he lied enough times, he would begin to believe it.

"'Course, William!" Jack said cheerfully. "E'eryone 'as to die sooner or later. She's just been spared years o' worryin'."

Will looked utterly confused, a how-dare-he-say-that-look spreading across his face.

"She was murdered," was all he said.

"Best not wallow in our griefs," Jack said, clasping Will's shoulder. He then walked over to the living room and sat down on the couch. As he took another drink, he couldn't help but wonder if what he said seemed almost harsh. This was Melissa, after all.

Will came to sit next to Jack on the couch. He seemed almost defeated.

"She was such a wonderful person," Will said, partly to himself and partly to Jack. "Everything was in her favor. She had you, a beautiful daughter, she was ready to start her life..."

Jack noticed that Will looked blank.

"She was nineteen," he continued. He seemed to be speaking to himself. "Who's life gets taken when they're nineteen?"

When it's taken at the hands of Cutler Beckett, Jack thought.

Will appeared to be deep in thought about Melissa. He had a sad look of longing on his face.

"Easy, Romeo," Jack joked in an attempt to distract both of them. "I do believe that Dearly Beloved is in rather close confines."

Will snapped out of whatever he was thinking about – most likely Melissa.

"I wasn't thinking about Melissa in any romantic means," Will said.

"Sure," he jested.

That only received Jack an icy look from Will. Seeing him angry always was an amusing thing. Whelpish William was never a tough person – seeing him scowl made Jack's day.

"Speakin' o' Katie, she's been tired these last two days," Jack mused. "Was exhausted yesterday, went to sleep at 7:00 today..."

Jack could swear that he saw Will blanche.

"Moody. More so than usual." Jack chuckled. "Mel was always tired. Not very moody, though."

Will swallowed, hands clasping together. He looked scared at this news – not something that he would have expected from someone who wanted a family.

"No," he chuckled, shaking his head. "S-She would have told me, wouldn't she?"

Jack, of course, had only an inference that Kate was pregnant. It was an inference nonetheless, though.

"Told ya what? That the overworked-to-the-point-of-exhaustion stork could be a payin' a visit to this 'ere block of New York?"

Will became pale and ran a hand through his hair. The reality of actually having a child seemed to scare him. Jack could never understand Will. Why would someone want a child?

It wasn't that Jack wasn't grateful for Amy. He loved everything about his daughter. Jack just wanted to know why someone would want to plan their entire life, much less at twenty-two and nineteen. Children were a lifetime commitment.

Wench and Whelp could handle it, though.

"'Aven't seen ya this nervous since Lizzie was kidnapped," Jack gested.

"That was different," Will justified. "Elizabeth's life was in Barbossa's hands. I'm shocked, not nervous."

Apparently Will didn't know that Kate had never confirmed what he was conjuring in his head.

"'Member to breathe, mate," Jack chuckled. "She never said anythin' to me. My incredible intuitive sense o' the female creature just realized that dear Katherine was more moody than normal."

Will nodded and reclined.

"What've we turned into, William?" Jack asked. "Sittin' in an apartment 'n' talkin' 'bout children. A year ago this wasn't a thought in our minds." He paused. "Well, maybe you, seein' as ya were ready to marry Lizzy. Life was easy...simple."

Jack hated remembering his days on the crystal clear Caribbean Sea, pilfering and plundering to his heart's content, at a time like this. He was already missing Melissa to the point where it was difficult to look at Amy – he couldn't bear to think about something else that was even a bit closer to him.

"It was," Will agreed. "It was simple before I met you."

Jack wasn't sure if Will meant for that to be an insult or not.

"It was boring before ya met me," Jack corrected. "Ya were a blacksmith fer Mr. Brown, the town drunk, 'n' had no chance whatsoever with Miss Elizabeth, were it not fer me."

Once he thought about it, Will had a great deal to thank Jack for. A smug smile spread across his face when he thought that he truly was the one who let fate fall into place.

"I suppose," Will admitted.

Satisfied, he took a swig of rum.

"The Black Pearl was a good ship," Will continued. "No other ship in the world could fit you better than that."

"I'm Cap'n Jack Sparrow," he said. "I love the Pearl 'n' the sea."

Jack remembered the days when he had been at the helm, the gentle wind in his face, the smell of saltwater filling his lungs, the warm sun tickling his skin...

Bugger, he missed that.

"Adventure number two was far more interestin'," Jack said, remembering all the fun, lust, and pain on the adventure to find the Dead Man's Chest.

"Interesting is an understatement," Will said to himself, then to Jack, "I was on the Dutchman and saw my father for the first time in years!"

"Dearest whelp," Jack said, "I do believe that bein' eaten by a tentacle-y beastie does triumph meetin' yer...equally tentacle-y father."

Jack remembered the kiss for the ages between him and Elizabeth as she shackled him to the mast. He had known his fate from the moment they broke the kiss.

That kiss still gave him chills – chills thinking back to the adrenaline that brought, chills thinking that that kiss was the one that sealed his fate and brought him to Melissa.

The kiss that, on the rare occasion one of them mentioned Elizabeth, made him think of her and wish for one more kiss far away from waters.

"All thanks to that backstabbin' pirate who thought it would be the only way to save 'er 'n' the crew by kissin' me 'n' quite literally drownin' 'er guilt."

Anger crept into Jack's voice the longer he spoke about Elizabeth – a pirate that he could only grudgingly respect.

There was a long silence between them. Will gave him a blank, slightly hardened stare. At first, Jack wondered if Will had feelings for Elizabeth, too.

Three women, William? Jack thought to himself. Ya really get 'round, there.

"That backstabbing pirate is my wife," Will finally said.

Will was married to Kate, though – the former Kate Sims. Elizabeth Swann was not living under this roof!

Was she?

Oh, bugger. His theory was true. Everything that she did mirrored the Elizabeth that he had known.

Kate was Elizabeth reincarnated.

Splendid. Now he had to live with the woman who killed him on top of the other ninety-nine problems he had to tackle?

"Oh, bugger," was all he could say.

* * *

**Melissa's back next chapter! Seems that's she'll be paying a house call to a certain doctor...**


	16. Haunted

Chapter Sixteen

Haunted

**Sorry for the slow update! I promise to try and update faster.**

**And, yes, there is a metaphor here. Try and see if you can catch it. **

* * *

Beckett was nearly asleep the evening of July 7. He could faintly hear the cool air from the air conditioning coming through the vent in his bedroom. 

It had been a long, hot day. His clients had been more argumentative with each other – and himself – than usual. Beckett hated his job some days. Today was one where he happened to hate it more than usual.

A sound night's sleep would cure everything.

Or, he would have had one, were it not for the light above him turning on.

At first, he thought that he was dreaming. It would only be logical, seeing a bright light while one's eyes were closed.

He was aware of his surroundings, though. Beckett knew that he was in his bed, nearly asleep. One wasn't asleep if they knew that they were awake.

He opened his eyes and saw that the light was, indeed, on. But how? He shut it off when he went to bed.

_Melissa_, he thought in the back of his mind.

No, that was impossible. It had been three weeks since the incident of June 15 and about two weeks since there was a sign that Melissa could possibly have been "haunting" him. He hated to use the word "haunting". It made him seem like he was paying the price for what he had done.

Beckett truly wasn't sorry that he killed Melissa. The only thing that he was sorry about was that now his past was coming back to haunt him.

It was more than most who committed murder could say. Most were only sorry that they had gotten caught. He had yet to be.

Beckett got up and turned the light off. The room was dark again. Perhaps it was nothing. There could have been a temporary glitch with the electricity.

_Yes_, he thought. _Just a mistake._

Beckett nestled back into his red sheets, despite the fact that the air conditioner was on.

The moment he shut his eyes, the lights turned back on.

Annoyed, he opened his eyes again.

"You're becoming quite the annoyance," he said to no one in particular, getting up and turning the light off again.

The room was pitch black now. He hoped that it would stay that way.

Before he even turned around, he saw the light switch flick back. Light illuminated the room.

He was irritated that it was, indeed, Melissa who was responsible for this. Couldn't she let him be?

"I thought the dead were supposed to rest in peace," he said to himself.

Without turning the light off, he went to go lay back in his bed.

"We'll play your game, Miss Lewes," he said. "I'll leave the light on."

He half expected for the light to turn off, now that he acknowledged her presence. Wasn't that what spirits (or was this a ghost?) wanted? Their presence to be known?

"Or is this just the beginning of your plan to drive me to the brink of insanity so that I take my own life because you believe it will somehow justify things?"

There was no response. Beckett didn't plan on hearing anything, either.

The light stayed on. Beckett let it stay on as he drifted back to sleep.

* * *

Kate woke up the next morning feeling refreshed. She was much more energized than she was when she arrived home last night. It was hard to believe that yesterday at this time, she had woken up in Indianapolis. It seemed so long ago to her. 

Just thinking of yesterday made Kate think of Melissa. That all-too familiar heartache came over her like a harsh wave.

Kate hated feeling that heartache. She was so sick of feeling it day after day. Kate was grateful for Jack living with them – he could distract her. Seeing Amy was a different thing, though. She was a constant reminder of her mother.

As the years would go by, Kate knew that it wouldn't get any easier for Amy, Jack, or her. Amy would grow up without Melissa as the wonderful mother that she would have been, Jack would be raising in, thirteen years, a teenage daughter by himself. And Kate? She had a feeling that Amy would grow up to look just like the friend that she missed more with each day.

Letting out a gentle sigh, Kate got out of bed and went to the kitchen. It was too warm to brew some coffee. She settled for a glass of iced tea, instead.

She opened one of the dark oak cabinets and pulled out a glass and filled it with iced tea. Kate added a small spoonful of Splenda and mixed it.

"Ah, Elizabeth," an all too familiar voice said. "Or is it Miss Swann?"

The voice obviously belonged to Jack. Was he sleep walking? Why was he calling her Miss Swann?

She turned around to face him. Jack didn't seem to be sleepwalking. He seemed perfectly awake.

_Will!_ she thought, realizing instantly that he told him.

"Tell me, dearie, was kissin' me the second time better than the first?" he asked, sauntering towards her. "Then again, the first time ya got to drown yer guilt. Second time it was purely selfish 'n' wanted to 'ave some fun."

Kate's face burned as he made her remember last year at the cabin. She hated every time that he brought that weekend up.

The thing she hated more? How close he was to her when he said his last three words.

She didn't dare respond. Kate wanted to forget that weekend so much

"Look at that, Elizabeth. Cat got yer tongue? Or does Cap'n Jack just make ya speechless?"

Were it not for guilt (she knew that this is what Melissa would want), Jack would not be living with her and Will at the moment.

"Do you see this counter here, Captain Sparrow?" she asked, giving a fleeting look at the shiny, black counter they were at. "If you call me Elizabeth one more time, your head will meet that and will give you a headache for a week."

"You always did prefer Miss Swann," he grinned.

Kate found it simply bizarre that she was the same person that spent a drunken night on an island with Jack and was the one responsible for his death.

Yet, at the same time, she found it so easy to believe.

"Be quiet," she told him.

"Not my fault I'm livin' with ya. I was gettin' less social interaction than healthy, 'n' I 'ad a wonderful offer – from _you_, mind ya."

He was right. Jack forgot guilt, however. She initially reached out to him because she was worried that he couldn't handle raising Amy by himself. Though, Kate was starting to keep him here out of guilt.

"Ah, just think o' the fun the three o' us'll 'ave, Lizzy," Jack grinned, snaking an arm around her shoulder and pulling her close. She half-unwillingly turned her body towards him.

Kate began to be very concerned for what could happen under this roof.

* * *

Beckett was surprised to see that he had gotten a decent amount of sleep that night, despite the possibility that Melissa was most likely haunting (he _detested_ that term, but "following" didn't quite sum up what exactly Melissa was doing) him. 

The light stayed on all night. Either there was something wrong with the electricity or the wiring in his house, or...

He truly hated saying what the other option was. It made him sound mad: the girl that he murdered was following – haunting – him.

Perhaps he was imagining it all. Perhaps Melissa _wasn't_ following him. Beckett hated to think that he was imagining it all, though. It didn't seem possible – everything that happened in his office a few weeks ago was beyond human explanation. What occurred last night could very well have been just an error with the electricity.

Melissa wasn't following him, right?

Nor was Beckett simply imagining that she wasn't following him?

* * *

**Fear not! I haven't forgotten Melissa! She'll be paying a visit to Amy and Jack soon. And I'm sure I'll be writing some flashbacks, otherwise it'll get a bit slow at times. And because I miss writing our Melissa so much...**

**Anywho, press that little lavender button, send some love, and you get an undead monkey as a thank you gift!**


	17. One Month

Chapter Seventeen

One Month

**I'm so sorry if Jack seems OOC in here at all. My Jack muse is fading, sadly...**

**I swear that Will is going to come into the story again! He's rarely made an appearance, but I've had to get a lot of things between Jack and Kate out of the way.**

**Thank you for the reviews! I hope that those that received the undead monkey aren't finding that it's causing _too_ much trouble...hehe.**

* * *

Jack began to adjust to the life that had changed so abruptly over the last month. The numbness of Melissa's sudden death had begun to wear off. Anger had fully settled into his blood. He was angry at Beckett for doing what he had done to Melissa. Jack had known that Beckett was a cruel man, but killing Melissa because of jealousy made him heartless.

As the days went by, Jack could sense a change in the house. He couldn't quite put his finger on the change – he was smart enough to know that something was different, though. Jack thought that perhaps the numbness was thawing off Kate, as well. He was beginning to realize that living here meant living without Melissa. Kate probably was thinking the same thing.

Will had, for once, been patient with him. He hated being treated as if he was about to crack like an egg at any moment, especially from the Whelp. He could contain himself. He was Captain Jack Sparrow, after all.

The one day a week that the Turners did work was time for Jack and his daughter. As much as he hated to admit it, the smile on Amy's face was something that could melt his heart.

_She's growin' up so fast_, he thought, realizing that he sounded as cliché as a "roses are red, violets are blue" poem.

In the blink of an eye, though, she would be starting college – the same age that Melissa was when they first met.

He found it hard to believe that she was eighteen when they met. Melissa acted younger -- naïve and cautious, almost like a child. She had been terrified to take a chance. Jack remembered that Melissa had first refused to even go to Dani's party last year because she was nervous that the cops would catch her for underage drinking. Melissa had only given in because of her best friend, who seemed more than eager to go to one of her last parties in which she would be single.

If it wasn't for that night though, there was a possibility that the world would never know Amy Pearl Sparrow.

He couldn't help but smile every time that he thought back to Melissa having "food poisoning" for the first time. She thought that she had gotten it from the kung pao chicken she ate the night before.

Really, weren't women supposed to know that they were pregnant if they had morning sickness and a late cycle? Then again, that was Melissa – it was impossible for her to figure something out unless it was spelled out for her.

That was what got her killed, Jack realized. She was too naïve to not go out to dinner with Beckett that one time. Look where that little gift got her _there_.

A week after he had moved in with the Turners, he saw that it was one month since Melissa had died. It was uncanny to think that one month ago she was alive. A time like that seemed so long ago. He could hardly remember her voice anymore. Jack had looked at a picture of her only once, and that was when he was packing. He didn't want to be reminded of her. Someday, he might allow himself to "accidentally" stumble upon a picture of her. He couldn't, though, not so close after her death.

The evening of July 15, Jack sat down with Kate in the living room after Amy was put to sleep. Will had gone "out to the store" -- put kindly, he was giving them time alone.

"A month ago today, I was told that I lost my sister," Kate said, looking at the clock.

7:00. That was the time that they came back home. Jack hardly remembered that night. He vaguely remembered calling the Leweses in the car. Back home, he had said that Melissa talked a year ago about what she would do if she had a year to live.

Jack was thankful he could hardly remember that night. He didn''t want to relieve any of it.

"It's been hard on both of us, Jack," she said. "I knew I would lose her someday. I didn't know how, though. I thought that maybe the distance would be too great and we'd eventually drift apart."

Kate and Melissa drifting apart? That was like black sails no longer being on a pirate ship!

"I just never imagined losing her like this," she said softly. "I never thought that she would be killed."

Jack hated having these talks. He hated to see people so vulnerable and nostalgic.

"It's been a month, I feel like I should be getting over her. Part of me knows that she's gone and never coming back, but it's so weird to say."

_As if ya say it, it's true that she's gone forever?_ he silently asked her.

"I can't imagine what this month has been like for you, Jack. You've been thrown into a position that none of us thought that you would ever be in. You're a single father trying to get his bearings."

"Who _would_ o' thought it?" Jack joked in an attempt to lighten the mood.

Kate apparently wasn't in the mood to have her state of mind lightened.

"Melissa should have lived," she said, mostly to herself. She appeared to be almost going into a trance. In fact, she didn't look unlike the night that Melissa had died.

A few moments of silence passed. He cursed Will for not being here. He was better at comforting women than he was – he had a feeling that tonight would be a night where he would see a woman cry.

He shuddered at the very thought.

"She'd be telling you to put on Mozart each night for Amy," Kate said, becoming more sober. He could swear that he saw a ghost of a smile dancing upon her lips.

"'Ow bored does someone 'ave to be to figure that out?" Jack asked. "Really – who would think that babies are smarter if they listen to that Mozart fellow?"

Kate smiled. "What makes me wonder is why she was so dead-set on Mozart when I gave her a Celine Dion CD just for that."

"'Ate to break it to ya, Katie," Jack said, putting an arm around her shoulder, pulling her closer, "but she never listened to that."

"Liar," she chuckled.

Honestly, he couldn't remember he listening to that once. She probably listened to that on the way to work or in the nursery, but why tell her that? Jack didn't know for sure.

The smile slowly faded from her face. "I miss her so much right now."

_Ye're not the only one, darlin',_ he thought. _Some of us are just better at 'idin' it._

"Let's be thankful we 'ave a good collection of blonde moments to remember 'er by," he smiled.

Kate attempted to smile. "Like the time that she thought the cashier was asking for her number."

"And the morning sickness!" he chimed in.

Thinking of those times in a light-hearted way helped him. It somehow made him think that his time on Earth without Melissa wouldn't be so hard. He was given a reminder of her, after all – Amy Pearl.

Jack didn't want her to grow up to be like her mother – both physically and emotionally. He couldn't bear to see such a reminder each day for the rest of his life. Yet, at the same time, he did want Amy to be like Melissa – it would be like they were never parted.

Why did Jack Sparrow never quite know what he wanted?

"Yes," Kate said, semi-fondly. She paused for a few moments. "I got so angry at Melissa when she told me about her little secret."

"Because she didn't tell ya fer a week," Jack said, recalling the talk he and Melissa had in the kitchen the day that she broke the news to Kate.

"Initially it was because it meant that she was going to stay with you."

Kate had made it not secret that she hadn't liked Melissa and him together. It was just another reason why she had been livid that day.

"Right after I realized that she was staying with you, though, _then_ I realized that she never told me. Then I got angry at that."

"That's when ya started 'atin' me e'en more," he joked.

She jokingly (he hoped) hit his chest and pulled away from him. Kate pulled her knees to her chest and looked forward. She was obviously thinking of something.

"I think being separated from her for a year helped," she said to Jack, eyes still forward. "We were drifting, but wanting to stay together. Distance...that was the only reason we were drifting. Things would have been so much harder if we were still living five miles from each other."

Jack did envy Kate a bit. She at least had a chance to be separated from Melissa the year before her death. Kate had a point – it most likely did help her.

Didn't help _him_ any. He had it harder. Jack had bonded so much the past year with Melissa. It wasn't easy losing a friend, a confidant, that close to him.

"Melissa did always play a song that sounded like a cat dyin'," Jack joked.

"Yeah," Kate nodded. "'When You're Gone'. Got me through the first few weeks."

He remembered reading more than a few e-mails mentioning "When You're Gone" -- without Melissa's knowledge, of course.

Kate turned to look at him. "I'm proud of you for handling this so well."

Jack saw a side of Kate that he wasn't sure if he had seen before. She was not the girl that he met last summer. This was a woman finally.

He had seen Melissa transform into a woman. She had become a woman the day Amy was born, but he could almost miss it. She had been pushed into becoming a woman, but she had grown into the role so well.

"I'm glad I met you, Jack," she said softly, putting a head on his shoulder.

As was he.


	18. A Love Story

Chapter Eighteen

A Love Story

**I really enjoyed writing this chapter. I hope that you all have as much fun reading it!**

* * *

Will saw that the mood had improved over the next few days in the house. He was grateful to see that things were starting to return back to normal. Kate smiled more. As well as Jack had been at hiding his emotions, Will could see that even he was happier than when he arrived. 

He and Kate began to treat Jack like a brother. The three were often together. Jack cracked his usual jokes, which, Will was surprised to see, had Kate in tears at times. He wasn't sure what had happened when he had gone to the store a few nights ago, but he was grateful that the melancholy was being wiped away and a new beginning being granted for them again.

Will began to see Amy as a niece, a daughter, even. She had a heart-melting smile. He couldn't help but wonder when Amy would be having a playmate. Kate had gone off birth control earlier in the month – within a year and a half, he supposed.

The end of July was upon them. He couldn't believe the month had gone so fast. Will wondered where all the time had gone. Had Amy and Jack been living with them for two weeks only?

On a warm summer day, Will suggested the four of them go to the beach. Jack agreed whole-heartedly. He hadn't seen the beach since Will and Kate's wedding in September. He was thankful that they lived so close to the beach now.

After getting ready for the beach, they took a cab ten miles to Rockaway Beach. The beach was filled with children, teens, and parents. It was fuller than Will expected, seeing as it was a weekday at the 1:00 hour. He had expected a few people, but this was a fair amount.

Jack put sunscreen on Amy, then took her out into the ocean, holding her with all the care in the world while getting her feet wet in the ocean – her first time, Will noted.

He and Kate stayed behind and sat on a blanket together. His arm was draped over her shoulder, her head on his shoulder. They looked out at the ocean. It brought back so many memories for him. Nearly half of Will's life had been spent on the ocean. The most memorable days were at sea. Some were better than others.

"It's funny," Kate said. "You forget how small you really are until you're next to this huge, timeless thing."

He gazed out at the enormity of the waters in front of them. Will suddenly felt like a speck next to something so big.

"I never thought about it," he replied.

She smirked. "You lived next to it for nine years and you never felt small?"

"It's because I never thought about," he replied honestly.

Kate nodded, then continued staring out at the sea. Will followed her green eyes. It seemed like they were focused on Amy and Jack.

"They're so cute together," Kate smiled.

Jack dipped Amy's feet into the water. She smiled with pure delight.

"She's going to be just like her dad," she continued. "Look at her. She's four-months-old and already loving the ocean."

Seeing Amy smile was priceless. She was adorable looking as happy as she was, being in the ocean. Will couldn't help but smile – both at what he saw and heard.

"Melissa would love to see this," Kate said, a nostalgic smile on her face.

Will nodded in agreement. Melissa would have loved to have been in the ocean with her daughter and Jack.

"Jack and Melissa are the type that people write love stories about," she said, looking at Will. "They could never admit what they felt, but they would always be there for each other."

* * *

Seeing the beach wasn't like anything I had seen when I had been in Florida with Jack. This one was different. The sand was lighter and it was dirtier. Seagulls were by the shoreline with children chasing after them. One with brown hair, a girl of five or so, made me catch a lump in my throat. It reminded me so much of what my daughter would be doing in only a few short years. 

I felt, put plainly, robbed. I was robbed of the life that I had a right to. I had a right to see my child grow up and become whoever she was going to be. I had a right to get my degree and be a veterinarian, just like I had planned for years.

Life never did go the way one planned it to, though.

I knew that I was in New York. Jack was here, most likely living with the Turners. I had seen Kate in our house shortly after I died (I guessed).

The beach. Jack must have felt somewhat at home being here. He hadn't merited the nickname "Pirate" for nothing, after all.

I looked out into the ocean and saw Jack and our daughter in the ocean. Amy looked like she was having the time of her life with her father. Jack had his trademark grin on his face.

She looked so much older than when I had last seen her, but in reality, it could only have been a month. I wished that I could know how old she was now. Was she nearing five months already?

I had never felt more alone in my life. The two people I loved most didn't even know I was there. Life seemed to be moving on for them.

I was utterly invisible.

I crossed my arms as I stood on the shoreline of the ocean. This is not how I wanted things to be. I would have given _anything_ to be the one in the ocean with my daughter.

I could never change things, though. There was no point in wishing for things that I knew I could never have. I knew that I could never come back.

I had wished for something that I knew could never happen on my nineteenth birthday. It was fun in getting the chance to hope that, perhaps, the impossible could happen.

I was still wishing for things that I knew I could never get.

* * *

Jack had always loved the ocean. He loved how free that he could feel when he was in it, how peaceful he could seem... it was the one place where he could forget practically anything. 

He had seen the ocean ten months ago. It didn't have the effect that he thought it would have on him, seeing it for the first time in months. The last time he had been in the ocean, he had been given the kiss of death by Elizabeth. Too much was going on when they were in Florida. Melissa was too needy to enjoy the ocean, and the Turner's plans kept him too busy.

Bloody women.

He lived by the ocean now – that was enough to make up for lost time. He could cherish the memories of the ocean that he would never tell Amy about.

As he looked down at Amy smiling gleefully, he wondered what Melissa would think if she could see their daughter right now.


	19. A Change in the Wind

Chapter Nineteen

A Change in the Wind

**Things are going to start moving along now! This chapter is sort of rushed, so try and follow. I apologize if it's not that clear haha.**

**I hope that you all are enjoying the story so far!**

* * *

July had now diminished to it's final two days. The weather had crawled up into the high eighties. Summer was in full swing in New York City. 

Jack hadn't worked for nearly a month. He didn't mind not working. Jack, Kate, and Will were always home together – it was almost as if it was a long visit, rather than the three actually living together. After encouragement from the Turners (Kate wasn't as gentle as Will in her encouragement), he had decided to apply for a job at a local restaurant. He wanted to get into the bartending aspect of the food industry, but Kate reminded him that he had to go to school for that.

Jack had remembered that Melissa always said he was a wonderful cook, but Kate reminded him again (bursting his proverbial bubble) that being a cook didn't pay enough to support a child – and to live on his own. She suggested that he be a server. They got tips and, she included shyly, since he was so charismatic, he would more than likely earn more, especially with females.

That was enough to make him want to run down to a restaurant and apply. Meeting new women all the time and quite possibly finding their phone number written on the back of receipts? What was better to do for a living?

He arranged a job interview for Dee's Restaurant, which was about three miles from the apartment. Jack was supposed to be in the restaurant at 10:00 on Wednesday for the interview, when they were preparing for the lunch hour.

He was more or less forced to get a job. Jack had a feeling that Kate wanted him out of the house and doing something productive. She and Will said that they would watch Amy during the day – he supposed that was supposed to be some sort of incentive.

Jack had no incentive to find a job. Didn't those two children know that?

* * *

On Friday, Will found himself watching _The Notebook_ with Kate. Jack was in the living room with Amy on his lap. The four were sitting on the couch, with Kate in the middle. Jack was playing with his daughter, bouncing her on his lap. Occasionally, Will looked over at the father and daughter, amused. They truly were adorable. Will loved how much Jack loved his daughter. It was amazing that he knew how to take care of her so well. 

Will had seen _The Notebook_, his wife's favorite movie, what must have been fifty times. He didn't mind it, but he enjoyed it because she enjoyed it.

Jack looked up during a love scene that occurred after the infamous kissing-in-the-rain scene, then looked down at Amy.

"Ne'er do what they did," Jack warned her.

Will couldn't help but laugh at the complete irony of it all.

Jack stood up and left with Amy afterwards and went into the kitchen. He had probably seen all that he could with that movie. Jack never was the kind to sit through a romantic movie.

The movie progressed. He could practically recite it. Kate had cuddled extra close to him in the last half of the movie.

The movie ended at 2:30, the final shot of the aged lovers beginning to gradually fade.

Will heard something that he had never heard at the end of the movie: he heard Kate crying.

At first he was shocked. She had never cried at the end of the movies. His instinct as a husband soon kicked in and hugged her, confused as he was, and allowed her to cry on her shoulder.

"It's just so sad!" she blubbered, pulling away.

Kate's tears confused Will. Never had he seen her cry at the end of movies. He didn't think that _this_ would be the one to bring her to tears. He would have guessed that _Titanic_ would have, not a bittersweet one that she had seen too many times to count, like_The Notebook_.

"I'm sorry," she apologized sheepishly, wiping her tears away. "It just got to me today, I suppose."

Will despised the week before his wife was expecting her monthly occurrence.

* * *

Over the weekend, Will had the wonderful privilege of having the stomach flu. 

He hadn't had the stomach flu for years. It wasn't until he had it that he realized how awful it was. He constantly felt sick to his stomach, exhausted, and couldn't keep a thing down.

Kate and Will had a 6:00 AM photo shoot on Monday, which Kate ordered to have him call Saturday night in a rush to find a replacement.

"We have a new art director," he had argued. "We can't have a new art director and a different photographer at once."

"It looks like we're going to," Kate said firmly. "We don't need the photographer getting sick on set."

After giving in, he had arranged for a photographer to fill in for him at the photo shoot.

_With our luck_, he thought,_she'll have the flu the day of the shoot._

* * *

Kate couldn't describe it, but she began to feel different that weekend. 

She didn't feel different in a mental sense. Kate felt different in a physical sense, one that she couldn't describe. It almost felt as if she were getting sick, but it wasn't like a cold. She was exhausted and her chest was tender.

Kate knew that this could be her body reacting to going off birth control. This was her first month without it, and her period was about a week late. Then again, that had been par for the course before she started her birth control. It could be up to a week and a half late. And with going off birth control, it was a possibility that her body would skip this month.

Right?

When she was chopping onions on Sunday night to put in a spaghetti sauce for her and Jack, the ghost of the thought that she was carrying a child popped into her head.

At first, the thought seemed silly. She was off birth control for only a month.

It wasn't possible already, was it?

_Don't act like Mel_, Kate thought to herself. _You're a week late, you're tired, you cried during _The Notebook_ yesterday – and, yes, Kate, it _is_ possible to get pregnant even the day after you stopped using that pill!_

She didn't know what to think. Kate was thrilled at the thought of having a child, but she wasn't sure how long Jack would be staying here. They only had a two bedroom apartment.

_Please don't think about the room_, she told herself. _You don't even know if you're pregnant._

The pain she felt in her chest told her otherwise.

Kate glanced down at her stomach. Was a child growing in there?

At a loss of what to even think at the epiphany of her possibly carrying Will's child, she wiped a tear away from the sting of the onions.

Jack's footsteps sounded miles away as they entered the kitchen. Her back was to him, but she recognized his any day.

"Alright there, Katie?" he jested. "Onions getting' to ya?"

She swallowed and put the knife down, still in a dreamlike state.

"Why can something so good make you feel so disgusting?" she asked.


	20. Epiphanies

Chapter Twenty

Epiphanies

* * *

Getting up at 4:00 AM took a strong person. Kate was surprised that she was able to accomplish such a feat. She was not a morning person – this photo shoot would not be a pleasant one. 

To top it all off, she felt even more sick. She was having difficulties differentiating whether or not she was picking up the flu from Will, having a hard time going off birth control, or was in the early stages of pregnancy.

Right now, she didn't care. All Kate wanted to do was crawl back into bed and sleep for a very long time.

While draining a glass of iced tea, she heard Amy crying. Kate thought that Amy was particularly loud today. Being up at the ungodly hour of 4:00 made everything seem louder, though.

Shortly after the crying began, Kate heard Jack's footsteps and Amy's cries enter the kitchen. She turned around to see them, indeed, in the room. Kate noticed that Jack looked tired, more so than usual.

_Peas in a pod_, she thought.

"Wonderful bein' up before the crack o' dawn, isn't it?" Jack joked.

"Yes, truly," Kate said, her tone revealing that it was everything but a wonderful thing.

"I see that someone's not a morning person," he said, patting Amy on the back.

She put the now-empty glass in the sink. "Since when have I been a morning person, Jack Sparrow?"

"Ne'er, my love," he smiled.

Kate sighed and took her purse. "I have to go now. I'll be back by 10:00. Tell Will --"

"When ye'll be back after 'e's finished pukin' 'is guts out," he finished.

"How sweet of you," she smiled.

* * *

As Kate got ready at the photo shoot, she began to feel more sick. At this point, she was convinced that either she was getting the flu or she was pregnant. She decided to go with the latter, after glancing down at her chest. Was she growing, or was she imagining it? A chest didn't grown that quickly, did it? 

_You're over analyzing and quite possibly pretending things_, one side of her thought as she was in hair and make-up. _Don't get your hopes up._

_You're a week late, though,_ the other side of her argued, looking at her reflection.

_You could be a week and a half late before The Pill, though,_ the first side of her argued.

She wanted to scream. Kate was, yet again, having a losing argument with herself and she did not feel good.

As juvenile as it sounded, she wanted to go home.

Slightly off balance with a a photographer who was not her husband (and who knew her best), she tried her best to think of poses that Will suggested to her all the weeks before. Something with her legs – she could show off her length in the knee-length gold skirt today.

She was interrupted by a sudden wave of nausea as she was posing with one hand on her hip, purposely slouched. Kate gulped, hoping that it wasn't obvious.

_No,_ she thought. _Don't throw up on set._

The nausea didn't reside. She tried her best to work through it, though.

The photographer got one more shot of her before the nausea got even more intense. She could feel her stomach churning, the sweat gathering on her face, and the blood draining from her face. Her arms didn't seem to want to cooperate with her – they felt so flimsy all of a sudden.

_Oh, God_, was all that popped into her head.

She looked at the green grass below her. Kate hadn't felt like this since she had gotten the flu in eighth grade. Instinctively, she breathed deeply and focused on the emerald blades to distract her from the nausea.

"You alright?" asked the photographer of thirty.

What could she say? "Yes, I think I have the stomach flu. Oh, wait, my mistake, I think I'm pregnant?"

"Uh-huh," was what she decided on, praying it would go away. "Yeah, just, what do you want me to do?"

"Maybe just cross one leg in front of the other --"

The photographer couldn't finish that sentence before Kate ran off to find the trash can by the art director, her iced tea coming back up.

"Dude, that's disgusting!" the art director said.

She had never been more embarrassed in her life. Kate had gotten sick on set. She was sure that she wasn't the first to get sick on the job, but that didn't help a bit with the embarrassment.

"God, what do you have?" the art director asked, disgusted. "The flu?"

It was at that moment that Kate Turner realized that this was not the flu.

She was pregnant.

* * *

After having a rockier photo shoot than her first one, Kate changed back into the clothes that she had arrived in and slung her purse over her shoulder. Before getting onto the subway to go home, she walked to a nearby Walgreens. 

Kate felt surprisingly calm. (Were all women supposed to feel scared when they went to buy a test? Melissa had been scared out of her mind when she bought one, she knew.) She wanted to start a family, even though most considered having a child at what would be nineteen and twenty-three unorthodox.

Kate didn't care. She was ready – and excited. Kate wanted to take care of a child with Will and see it grow into whatever it would become.

She vaguely wondered if it was twins. Her great-uncle and grandfather were twins, so it wasn't ruled out.

She didn't care right now whether she was having one or two. Kate was just excited to confirm that she was expecting.

The only question was when to find out the confirmation.

* * *

Will had spent most of the morning in bed, resting. He didn't have much energy, but hadn't yet vomited today. Will was grateful for that. He supposed that he was improving, thankfully. 

Will ate some dry toast and managed to keep that down. He was grateful for that – he had hardly eaten the last two days.

When Kate walked in at 10:00, he couldn't help but notice that she appeared to be slightly anxious. She greeted him, set her purse down in their bedroom (why? She had usually just set it in the kitchen or living room.), then came into the kitchen, where he was finishing a slice of toast.

"How are you feeling?" Kate asked.

"Better," Will said.

"Obviously," she smirked, looking at the toast.

He smiled in reply.

"How was the shoot?" he asked, changing the subject.

"I got sick on set," she said nonchalantly.

Will nearly choked in surprise. Now _she_ had the flu?

"I'm glad you weren't there. You would have relapsed," she joked.

How could she be acting so energetic after getting the flu? He was exhausted his first two days of getting it, and here she was, up smiling and joking.

"How did it go overall?" Will said, at a loss for words.

"Fine," she said simply.

* * *

All day, Kate had decided when to take The Test. It had been sitting in her purse all day. She knew that she should take it. Kate wanted to – she wanted an answer terribly. 

She looked at Amy with a completely different eye now. Kate could be having a little one like that in nine month's time.

She remembered Melissa saying that she could bring home her What to Expect When You're Expecting book she bought when she was pregnant with Amy. Melissa offered that the same weekend that she was killed.

Kate had a feeling that the next nine months (she assumed she was with child now) would bring more memories of Melissa than she would want at times.

After dinner that night, the three talked for a while in the living room. Kate could feel herself becoming more tired as the early evening dragged on. 7:00 seemed like it should be 9:00. She knew that it was partially nerves and partially from her fatigue.

Like every night at 7:00, Jack walked down the hallway to put a drowsy Amy in her crib. Kate didn't feel unlike Amy right now.

"I think I'll do the same," Kate said to Will. "I'm going to take a bath and call it a night, myself."

She noticed that Will seemed to be improving. He was gaining color back in his face.

"Alright," Will said. "Feel better."

_Doubtful_, she thought to herself.

Kate stood up and went to the bathroom. She began to draw a bath, and when she knew that Jack had gone into the living room and was no longer in the bedroom next to theirs, she went and got the test from her purse.

She shut the door to the bathroom behind her. Kate looked at the white and blue box. She realized that she was suddenly nervous. Melissa had done this same thing a year ago – she was scared to death. There was no reason for her to be nervous. She wanted a child. Melissa hadn't meant to come across her child, but she wouldn't have traded her for anything.

Guilt ran through her veins. Kate wanted to have a child and would (hopefully) be given the opportunity to see him or her grow up. Melissa was never going to have that.

_You can't rewrite the past_, she thought. _All you can do is try to right the future._

She had sworn to Jack that she would be there for him and Amy. Kate had promised that she would even help to raise her.

That was one promise that she knew she would keep.

_Back to the matter at hand_, she reminded herself, looking down at the box.

She took a deep breath in, then opened the box. Kate took the test and set in on the edge of the sink. She looked at it, willing it to give her a result sooner. Kate hated waiting.

She added some lavender bath salts to the warm water. Kate couldn't much see the point, though. Lavender would not relax her after the test results.

The water continued to run. Kate couldn't help but have Melissa enter her mind again. What had she been doing while she was waiting? Knowing her, she would have separated herself as far away from the truth as possible. She had probably left in the bathroom while she did whatever it was she thought would take her mind off it.

Why hadn't she been there for Melissa last year? She need Kate more than ever, and she had been a thousand miles away starting a life for herself.

It occurred to her how selfish she had really been. She wanted to call Melissa right now and tell her every single emotion she was feeling, yet, she realized sharply, that she wasn't there to pick up.

She had been a girl last year. Why was it only now that she had changed into a woman?

She wished that she could repeat last year all over again. Kate never regretted things, but she was finding that there were things that she wished she would have done so much differently.

She forced herself to try and not think about that right now. Melissa wasn't thinking about her when she was waiting the results of her pregnancy test.

Then again, they were under completely different circumstances.

While she was leaning against the wall, she breathed in the lavender filling the room. She was wrong. It began to calm her.

Was the test ready yet?

Uncrossing her arms, she walked over to the sink to see if the results were ready.

When she picked up the test, Kate forgot about Melissa.

All the could focus on was the pink plus sign.

* * *

**Melissa is going to be very tied in with this! Believe me, I've hardly forgotten about her.**

**I'm going to try and wrap this up soon. I have plot bunnies that are eating away at me! One of them is getting feisty... haha.**

**Lastly, there's a new poll in my profile. Go ahead and vote, if you'd like!**

**Reviews are very much appreciated!**


	21. Green Apples

Chapter Twenty-One

Green Apples

**Thank you for the reviews, you all!**

**And, in honor of St. Patrick's Day, here's some green-sprinkled sugar cookies! Hehe.**

**Also, I have to apologize for the long wait. School has kept me busy this week, as well as babysitting. I've at least got a bit of inspiration from the latter! Hah.**

* * *

When Kate woke up the next morning, she felt groggy. Her eyes hurt a bit, and although she hadn't gotten out of bed, she felt drained.

It took her a moment to realize that she was tired because she was expecting. A small smile crept onto her full lips at the very fact: she and Will would be parents soon. For just a while, they wouldn't have to think of names or even how to raise their child. They could just enjoy the fact that they were to be parents in nine months.

Kate wondered how to even tell Will. She had heard him when he crawled next to her last night, but had decided against telling him. Kate began to feel nauseous at the very thought of telling him that he would be a father – not because she was worried that he wouldn't take it well, but anxious to tell him something that they had both been anticipating.

She began to realize that she wasn't getting nauseous about telling Will that they were expecting. Kate was nauseous because she was experiencing day two of her morning sickness.

_Wonderful_, she thought, racing to the bathroom.

* * *

Carrying his daughter out into the living room, Jack looked down at his nearly five-month-old daughter. He noticed she had her mother's round, innocent eyes, but her light blue eyes were replaced by his chocolate ones. He smiled as he realized she was going to be the perfect mix of him and Melissa – his dark hair and eye coloring, but Melissa's structure.

It was moments like these that made him miss Melissa more than he would ever admit. Not a day went by where he didn't think of her. Jack even thought that he could feel her – whether that was his imagination or not, he wasn't quite sure. A very large part of him hoped that it wasn't.

He sat down on the couch next to Will, who was watching the morning news. He hid whatever nostalgia and sadness he was feeling and put on his trademark smile.

"'Ow 'bout some Sesame Street fer th' Sea Turtle?" Jack joked.

"Is Sesame Street even on now?" Will asked.

"It's a joke, William," Jack pointed out. "Sometimes those with a sense o' humor makes them e'ery now 'n' then."

Will suppressed a sigh that he obviously wanted to let out badly.

"Amy, 'ere, doesn't know the difference between the news 'n' a puppet," he said, partly to Amy, and partly to Will.

He could feel a smart comment about to come from Will, but was interrupted by the sound he had been all too familiarized with since Saturday – it was the sound of someone vomiting. Kate was the lucky one, this time.

"Now 'er," Jack cringed.

* * *

After day two of her morning sickness, Kate was more than ready to be done with it. She didn't want to go through eight more weeks of this (she guessed that she was five weeks along – that had been the last time she had her period). How did Melissa do this?

Melissa. Even though she was weak from her morning sickness, she could still feel the pang go through her.

Sighing, she flushed the toilet, stood up, and looked in the mirror in the bathroom. She was pale. Kate knew she looked like a ghost. Wryly, she wondered if that was how awful she looked yesterday.

Looking at her stomach in the mirror, she could swear that it looked bigger, as if her shorts would be too big in two weeks time.

One didn't show that quickly, did they?

Kate went down the hallway and spotted Jack and Will in the living room before going into the kitchen for some water. She knew that she should have some bread to relax her stomach, but didn't for two reasons. First, the thought of eating anything right now disgusted her, and second, she didn't want to seem suspicious – they had heard her, right?

"Y'know, ya both are givin' me such ambition to get out o' this apartment," Jack said. Kate assumed that he was talking to both her and Will.

"Why is that?" she asked him, reaching for a glass in one of the cabinets.

"I cannot _stand_ the sound of people's breakfast comin' back up... lunch, dinner, what 'ave ya," Jack said.

"You dealt with Melissa's morning sickness for weeks," Will pointed out.

Kate was grateful neither of them were in the kitchen. She was no longer as pale as a ghost, but as red as a tomato.

"That's my point, lad," Jack said. "If I 'ave to 'ear one o' ya throw up one more time --"

"Will's fine now," Kate intervened. Her face was still bright red. She started to fill up a glass of water. Kate hoped the cool water would reduce her blushing. "I'm the one you have to worry about."

She could practically hear Jack rolling his eyes. "Splendid."

* * *

Kate had gone to lay back down at around 11:00, saying that she felt nauseous. Truth be told, she looked sick to her stomach. She had managed to eat some dry toast, though. Will had let her be – if she felt anything like he had the past few days, she just wanted to be left alone.

For an hour, Will talked with Jack. Jack said with heavy sarcasm that he couldn't wait for tomorrow to go to his job interview. Will had only rolled his eyes. He began to pray for Jack to get the job – Will wanted him out of the house.

Somewhat surprised that Kate hadn't come out by noon, Will went to check on her. He nudged the door open and peeked inside. Despite the fact that it was summer, Kate was nestled into her blankets. She looked to be asleep.

Kate never was, Will decided, when she opened her eyes. She smiled gently, almost sleepily.

"I didn't mean to wake you," he apologized.

"You didn't," she dismissed. "I was just resting."

_Liar_, he thought to himself as he crawled next to her. _You would just rather have me not feel guilty._

Kate rolled on her other side and put her head on his chest, pulling him closer to her. She sighed contentedly.

"I'm assuming this is a sign of you making me your pillow?" he asked teasingly.

"Unwillingly, if it comes to that," she said, an equal amount of playfulness in her voice.

Kate seemed to be gaining most of the color in her face. Perhaps she only got the twenty-four hour version of the flu.

Lazily, he ran his fingers through her hair. She closed her eyes. He wondered if Kate had fallen asleep. He was getting so relaxed that he could, if he had closed his eyes.

"Will?" she murmured.

"Yes?" he asked.

Through Kate's chest, he could feel her heart beating faster. He immediately became nerved. He had an awful feeling it was something that he didn't want to hear – what, exactly, he could only imagine.

"Can I tell you something?" she asked.

Those five words did not help to calm him in the least.

"Anything," he said, praying there wasn't a hint of shaking in his voice. He could feel his own heart start to quicken in his chest.

She tilted her head up to his ear, ready to whisper something - anything. It could be that she had gotten another job in Paris and that they would have to move across the country, or, God forbid, she wanted some time away from him.

Although, with her mischievous manner, she sensed that it was far from either of the two.

"We're going to have a baby," she whispered, a smile dancing on her lips.

At first, he wondered if this was some sort of a joke she had decided to play, something to get his hopes up and ecstasy rushing through his body in a way that he had experienced only a few times in his life.

Kate would never do that.

Instantly, Will looked into her eyes to see if this was, in fact, some sort of awful joke.

Her emerald green eyes shone with built-up tears, and her smile was as wide as the day they married. She was telling the truth.

Will couldn't believe it. They would be parents.

"Kate!" Will said, a wide, permanentsmile on his face. "Th-That's amazing!"

She laughed, tears brimming her eyes even more. "It really is."

Amy would have a playmate in just nine months. The thought that Amy would soon be the one not crying in the middle of the night was bizarre. _They_ would be having a little one soon.

"Who should we tell first?" Will asked.

"Your father," she said. "He's been asking us since we were engaged when we were going to have children."

His father would be the one most elated, she was right. Will only wished that they could deliver the news face-to-face, instead of over the phone. He didn't think that they could keep such a thing until November though, when Kate would be four months along.

"After calling our families, we have to go to the store," she said. "We need to buy green apples!

Did he hear right – green apples? He looked to see Kate's cheeks turning red.

"I'm craving them," she said simply.


	22. Getting Ahead

Chapter Twenty-Two

Getting Ahead

**Thank you all so much for the reviews!**

* * *

The next morning, Jack had given Amy over to the Turners for his 10:00 job interview. Kate was grateful that the apartment could have some peace and quiet for once. She also had wanted to talk to Will about the baby, something that was not easy with Jack in their apartment. It was difficult enough calling both Bootstrap and her parents yesterday without feeling like she wanted to burst from the overwhelming happiness.

She made the mistake of being visibly elated as Jack handed his daughter over to them. He had caught sight of this, his brown eyes mischievous.

"Ya kids enjoy yer time alone," Jack grinned.

Kate suppressed rolling her eyes. She turned to see that Will had not, though.

"I'm sure we will," Kate said, shifting Amy on her hip.

"Just... _please_... get the job," Will said. Kate could tell he was trying not to sound too desperate, but it was clear that he wanted Jack out of the apartment as much as she did, even if he did stir things up while he was here.

"Eh," Jack shrugged. "No 'ardship to stay with the wench and whelp fer a few more months if need be."

_We'll kick you out in nine months, though,_ she thought.

"Go," Kate said instead, shoving him with her free hand towards the door.

"I have zero ambition to do something productive during the day, darlin'," Jack said, craning his neck to face them.

"That's wonderful, Jack," she said, ignoring his previous statement. She shoved him out of the door and locked it behind him, a satisfied smirk on her face.

A ring of silence reverberated through the apartment. She relished in the momentary silence. Even Amy hadn't said anything. Her brown eyes were round in wonder, looking up at Kate.

"Finally," Kate said, laughing lightly, breaking the silence between them.

Will smiled and took Amy from her. "Here, let me. You're already carrying one."

And Will thought that she was weak just because she was with child?

"I want to hold her!" she said. "I'm perfectly capable of holding a five-month-old."

Kate wasn't sure whether Will was just being chivalrous or if honestly thought expecting women weren't supposed to carry things. She knew that they could, just not heavy lifting.

Amy was hardly back-breaking.

She decided it was a lost cause as Will put her in her swing in the living room. Kate could already sense that he would have her do minimal things these next nine months.

"We should discuss what we can about the baby before Jack comes back," Kate said, sitting on the couch.

"When should we tell him?" Will asked, taking a seat next to her.

Kate shrugged and looked at Amy, who was looking around the room.

"Tonight," she said unwaveringly. "I have a feeling he has a clue of what's going on." She smiled, mostly to herself. "He catches on fast."

Kate's eyes stayed on her goddaughter's. She remembered that Melissa had come up with a name so early for Amy. How could she possibly have given the most important person that she would ever come across a name that they would have forever without meeting them?

True, she and Will had made a list for fun one night last summer, and she was convinced that if the child she was carrying was a boy, they would name it William Turner III. A girl was something completely different. Kate couldn't help but wonder if they would be the couple who decided the names early on, like Jack and Melissa, or if they wouldn't decide until the child was ready to be born.

_The last thing you need to do is get ahead of yourself_, she silently chided.

"Will?" she asked. "Do you think it's going to be a boy or a girl?"

Kate had always gone against her conscience. It was what had made her do the crazy things that she had done her entire life – including getting married at eighteen to someone that she had known for three months. She could get ahead of herself now if she so chose!

He smiled warmly at her. "Darling, I'm ecstatic that we're going to be having a child! Whether our child is a boy or a girl doesn't matter to me in the least."

Even though that was the answer that she was sure she would receive, she couldn't help but smile back. Will had never taken anything for granted. Perhaps that was the thing she loved most about him – each and every thing was a gift to him.

That was just one of the reasons that Will made Kate a better person. She wasn't sure if it was because she was slowly maturing, the result of Melissa's passing, or if Will had really changed her world that much, but she, too, had started to not take things for granted. she saw how life could change in the blink of an eye after losing her best friend of thirteen long, unforgettable years.

Life was something that could not be taken for granted. She was learning to cherish each day, whereas Will had always cherished each moment.

"Do you have a preference?" Will asked her, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Of course not," she said truthfully. "I just have a feeling that we're going to have one extra blessing."

Will knitted his brows together, puzzled. A few moments passed until he said, "Twins?"

She shrugged. Yet again, she ignored what her conscience had told her before about getting ahead of herself. What was the harm?

"It might be," she said. "I weighed myself today, I'm three pounds heavier than last week. During your first trimester, you typically lose a few pounds, not gain them. And I swear that I'm starting to show."

"Do twins run in your family?"

"Yeah, on my dad's side. My grandpa and great-uncle are twins."

Again, Will's brows knit together. "I've only met your grandfather."

Kate wasn't sure how long she could keep her laugh enveloped. "No, you met both at the wedding."

A few moments passed before Will seemed to understand. "Is that why your grandfather greeted us twice?"

Kate finally laughed. "The first one was my grandpa. The second was my great-uncle, Tony."

The situation was not unlike two teenagers in love. When one had made a silly mistake, all that the other could do was laugh and love them all the more for it.

She smiled and put her head on Will's shoulder. All she could say while half-laughing was, "I love you."

* * *

Much to Jack's chagrin, he had gotten the job at Dee's Restaurant and was told to report to work on Monday from 12:00 to 8:00 PM. He honestly didn't know why the manager had hired him. Jack was of no use to the restaurant, work-wise. He had never enjoyed working and being told by another what to do. G. Will Liquors at least had some entertainment. Dani – ah, Dani, he had nearly forgotten about the girl with black hair and green highlights – was the best part of working there. The eclectic girl with the eyebrow piercing always was good for a chuckle or two, especially two days after the infamous party in July.

A grin crept onto Jack's face at the very memory of both the party and Dani's words on the Monday after the party.

He tried to convince himself that getting back to work wouldn't be all that bad. Jack could very well meet a girl there. With his charisma and confidence, he was sure that it would be no time at all.

_That_ would be his incentive to go to work on Monday.

Just the W-word put a damper on the thought of meeting a girl, though.

He took the subway back and walked the block and a half to the apartment. Jack unlocked the front door to the apartment with the key that the Turners had given him. He took the elevator up to the sixth floor and went to apartment 6F and let himself in the door.

Jack entered to the apartment and went into the living room. He saw Kate's feet propped onto the glass coffee table table in front of the couch. Her long legs were at an angle, with Amy laying parallel on Kate's lap, looking up at her. Amy was grasping on to Kate's fingers, smiling and laughing.

She seemed to be playing with Amy more that usual.

Kate looked up at Jack, a smile still on her face from playing with Amy.

"You look a bit morose, Jack," Kate noted. "You got the job, didn't you?"

She knew him too well.

"Darlin', on Monday, ye'll get the joy o' seein' 'ow 'ard it is to take care o' a five-month-old girl," was his reply.

Kate turned her attention back to Amy and gasped. "Did you hear that?" she asked Amy in a voice that one only uses to a child. "Daddy has a job!"

Must that woman use a baby voice when talking to his own child?

"You got the job?" Will asked from the kitchen, out of sight.

"Yes, boy," Jack replied, exasperated.

"I say we celebrate tonight!" Kate said cheerfully.

_Oh, I'll bet ye'd like to celebrate_, Jack thought.

* * *

Jack, Kate, and Will had decided on Nick's Pizza for dinner that evening. Jack noticed that Amy was asleep by the time they decided to leave for the restaurant. He took her along in her carrier, doubtful that she would wake up.

The four took a cab to the restaurant, then walked into the busy restaurant. Dread settled in Jack's stomach as he scanned the waiters quickly walking to and from tables, some with large trays of food with them. _This_ is what he would be working with every day? Eight hours of _this_?

He despised Kate instantly for talking him into doing that job interview in the first place.

While waiting a few minutes for a table, Jack scanned the restaurant. It had light brown-colored walls, and green plants in baskets were hanging from the ceiling. It had quite a relaxed appearance to it, but the boisterous laughter and talks of the diners was anything but. It was a place meant for you to have a good time – in a way, it reminded him so much of the taverns of Tortuga that he had visited long ago. It seemed to be mostly family and couples. Jack couldn't help but wonder if Amy would be wanting to go here for dinner one night in a few year's time.

He wondered if, by the time Amy was old enough to go on the subway by herself, she would visit him after school some days at Dee's Restaurant. It would be a convenient time when she most likely would, it would be the lull between lunch and dinner.

Thinking that far ahead seemed incomprehensible. Ten years ago seemed like a lifetime.

The four had waited for only about five minutes before they were seated at a booth at the back of the restaurant. As they were walking towards the booth, he saw two families/couples on either side of their booth. One was an elderly couple in their seventies, and the other was a couple in their thirties with a young boy and girl of perhaps eight and five.

They sat down and were handed menus. The waitress pulled out a pad and pen from her apron decorated with Nick's Pizza pins. One pin said, "Isabella", which Jack assumed was her name.

"Can I start you all off with anything to drink?" Isabella asked.

Jack was sure that rum wasn't served here, so he settled for the next best thing: any other sort of alcoholic beverage.

"Bud Light," Jack said.

"Water, please," Will said.

"Water, as well," Kate said.

The waitress jotted down their drink orders, then set off. Momentary silence lulled between them.

"Congratulations on getting the job," Will said to Jack.

_Whelp_, Jack thought.

"Does that mean you'll get your own place soon?" Kate asked, half hopeful, and half teasing.

Jack chuckled. "Let's not rush things, darlin'."

That was code for no – he would rather stay with the Turners as long as he could. It was free, after all.

The waitress returned shortly and handed them each their drinks, then left, leaving them to ponder over what to have for dinner.

"Want a sip, Katie?" Jack asked her nonchalantly, holding the Bud Light in his hand.

He could swear that he saw the slightest bit of blush creek upon her cheeks as she said, "No, I'm fine, thanks."

"Ya sure?" he asked. He found it odd – she usually took a sip of whatever sort of alcohol he was having. Jack thought that it was just because they were in public – that wouldn't have stopped her from a sip, though.

"I'm fine," she nodded.

She obviously wasn't going to have a sip, so instead, he took one.

"What are ya, pregnant?" he teased, putting his drink on the cardboard coaster.

Kate looked sideways at Will in a way that bore such a strong resemblance to Elizabeth Swann that it nearly made Jack call her just that. She looked like she was about to say something, but she just kept her eyes on Will. After a few moments, she looked at Jack.

It was that look exchanged between Kate and Will that made Jack realize she _was_ pregnant.

"Oh," was all he could say.

Jack was shocked. William Turner – _the whelp_ – was not a eunuch.

What sort of a world was this?! The fact that he could even impregnate a woman, much less someone as ravishing as Kate, was mind boggling.

Kate even said that they were going off birth control off this month.

William and Katherine Turner had done something very few people could do – they made him speechless.

"William, 'ow can ye impregnate a woman in a month's time? Ye're supposed to be a eunuch!"

Kate turned bright red, turning her head parallel to the table and shielded her face with her hand. Will remained, surprisingly, not insulted. Perhaps he knew that in the end, he would have the last laugh.

Or perhaps he had never cared in the first place.

He had seen the elderly couple's reaction. They looked started at the words that came from him. Why were they looking at him like it was his fault? All he did was state a fact!

"Yes, I'm pregnant!" Kate said to Jack, interrupting them. "And you, Jack, you're quite familiar on how to impregnate a woman."

Mood swings were really getting to her early. He decided to ignore her moodiness.

"Well, regardless of the fact that this..." Jack trailed.

Eunuch was no longer right. He impregnated a woman in one month!

"...lovely couple shall be 'avin' an offspring in nine months... an awfully whelp-ish or wench-ish one at that... I propose a toast," Jack finished, raising his bottle. "I congratulate ya 'n' will answer any 'n' all questions ya 'ave about these cryin' miniatures."

A look of amusement swept over Kate's face, her green eyes smiling. He was completely joking – a copy of What to Expect When You're Expecting would take care of nine months. It was when the baby was actually a living thing that they could see that was the challenge. Why couldn't they make a manual for that?

"We'll keep that in mind, Father of the Year," Kate teased.


	23. Rose Colored Tears

Chapter Twenty-Three

Rose-Colored Tears

**I'm so sorry for the long wait!**

**Also, I apologize if Jack seems OOC in any places. I'm almost done with the story, and my muses are deciding they want to leave me a bit earlier than planned. Again, I apologize.**

**  
Thank you to my beta and my reviewers!**

* * *

The day following the Turners' candid announcement at the restaurant, Jack decided to dig through his closet for the unpacked things from the house he and Melissa had shared in Minnesota. It was the first time he had even looked at things not pertaining to him or Amy. In a way, he hadn't wanted to, but Jack remembered that Melissa had wanted to give the pregnancy and parenting books to the couple had their own child.

It didn't hurt _that_ much to look at his deceased friend's things, he noted with heavy sarcasm.

Kate sat next to him, her back against the light brown door of the closet, while he pulled a box out of the closet. Looking at her made Jack remember exactly what he had thought when Melissa was carrying Amy: Someone could not possibly be growing inside her. Melissa hadn't shown for about three months, but he could swear that he could see the smallest of bumps on Kate already.

That very well could be Kate taking advantage of eating for two, though, which he had yet to see.

Jack opened the box. He could practically relive the entire year just by looking at the top few things that lay in it: the velvet black box containing Melissa's pink-pearled mother-and-child necklace, the medallion that made them cross paths, and the books that she kept at her bedside for nine months. A maroon patch of fabric peeked out from beneath the items. Jack knew instantly that was her university sweatshirt, the one with the golden M on the front.

He despised looking at these things now. The owner of them was a thousand miles away and could never own them like one was supposed to. He couldn't bury her with the sweatshirt and books, of course, but he had contemplated burying her with the mother-and-child necklace. He decided against that, though, thinking that it would, someday, be a way for Amy to connect with the mother she never knew.

Jack didn't care what he looked at, he just needed to divert his gaze from Melissa's jewelry and books. He decided on focusing on Kate's reaction, instead. It was, to say the least, heartbroken and sorrowful. Kate was displaying the emotions that Jack was feeling.

Silently, she reached out for the medallion. It's pendant was resting on top of the black box, and the chain was resting on the cover of one of the parenting books. She picked it up, the gold pendant making a clinking sound with the chain as she did so. Kate swallowed – he guessed she was half fighting back any tears that might wish to escape.

"The medallion," she finally said. "It's where it all began."

_Oddly, it's where it all ended_, Jack thought.

"Admit it, dearie," Jack grinned. "Life would be rather boring without me."

Wordlessly, Kate nodded. It occurred to Jack that that might not have been the right thing to say.

He hardly cared, though.

Jack wondered what Kate was thinking. She had been with Melissa when, unbeknownst to the then-eighteen-year-olds buying two medallions, Melissa's life had completely changed. Were it not for her buying it, things would never have gone the way that they did – Amy would never be born, and, more importantly, Melissa would be alive.

Jack hated fate with a fiery passion at times.

Kate put the medallion on the hardwood floor. The clink of gold and wood meeting broke the silence in the room.

"What's in the box?" she asked quietly.

She was the one that asked -- it wasn't his fault if this was the thing that made Kate start crying like a fountain.

Out of confusion of what exactly to say, Jack said nothing. Kate's gaze met his, and she picked the box up and opened it. Tears brimmed her eyes and collected on her eyelashes like a spider's web after a rainstorm.

Wonderful. Lady tears.

"The mother-and-child necklace," she said, her eyes still on it.

"Aye," Jack dismissed.

"Why did you keep it?" she asked, looking up at him gently, before he could say anything else that would change the subject.

Saying that it was for Amy was too sappy. It sounded like something the Whelp would have said. Jack was far from a whelp.

"Must o' been dropped in there," he said.

That sounded too Whelp-ish. Was it obvious that he was lying? Since what he said in his lie all but meant that it had no further value to him, he would have thrown it away while cleaning if it didn't matter to him.

Would Kate find out that he actually wanted to keep it for Amy? He would be viewed as such a whelp!

From Kate's gaze, Jack immediately knew that she had seen through his lie**.**

"I think you should keep it for Amy," Kate said. "Or maybe for yourself. Just as a reminder of Melissa."

What could he say to that? Melissa loved that thing. It was as unique of a mother-and-child necklace as they had been as friends. He could say to keep it, but why? He couldn't think of a reason.

Before he could give one, Kate closed the box and set it next to the medallion, an stubborn sign that he would be keeping it. He was grateful that she did that. Did she do that for him, though, or for Amy?

Triumphed by a woman once again, Jack pulled the four books out of the box and handed them to her. Kate looked at them blankly, almost nostalgic, for a moment. She took them and rested them in her lap.

"Thank you," she said.

* * *

Kate had almost allowed herself to cry when she had seen Melissa's things for the first time. She wasn't sure what she would feel when Jack finally took the box out. Kate almost expected herself to be strong, but she also expected herself to break down into tears. She did neither.

Everything had came back in a flood: the day she and Melissa bought the medallions – the day that changed their life more than either could think was possible. The books – they were the same ones that Melissa read four times over during the nine months with Amy.

It was neither of those things that nearly brought Kate to tears. It was the mother-and-child necklace, complete with a pink pearl and pink cord. Melissa had loved that necklace – it was something special just for her and her daughter. Perhaps Melissa thought it was some sort of a connection, as well.

Setting the books down on her and Will's unmade bed, all she could do was know that one day, things would almost return to the way they were.

* * *

I saw Kate sitting in her bed next to Will. Her bedside lamp was the only light on, leaving a gentle glow in the room. The curtains were closed. I guessed that it was night. In her lap was What to Expect When You're Expecting – something I had decorated with my handwriting, as I'm sure Kate and Will had seen.

At first I wondered why they were paging through my book. Had Jack only given it to them now, or would my daughter be having a playmate in a few months' time?

I went next to them to see that they were opened up to the father section of the book. A pink Post-It from months (it hadn't been years, had it? Kate and Will didn't seem to have aged a day!) ago was on the first page of the father section. "READ!!" was what I had written. I remembered that day. In a fit of frustration of what I assumed was Jack not caring – again -- I simply stuck a Post-It on the page and left it bookmarked for him. I was sure that he had read it eventually.

Kate looked wistfully at the page then said, "What month do you think that she wrote this?"

It was as if my best friend could feel my presence. I wasn't surprised if she did – it seemed that we had an unbreakable bond between us.

"Who knows," Will said with a light chuckle. "Knowing them, it was the eighth or ninth month."

Kate nodded. "Probably."

For a brief moment, her fingers grazed over my handwriting. I wonder if she was just thinking of a memory of me, or if she thought that I would be brought back with just a touch of something that belonged to me.

She flipped a few sections back, one on how to plan names. I had never read it, since I knew exactly what Amy was going to be named. The suggestion of Audrey seemed so long ago. I couldn't imagine brown-eyed Amy -- meaning "loved" in Latin -- being named anything but.

Wait – they were at the naming page? Was Kate pregnant now? She didn't much look it.

"We know that it's going to be named William if it's a boy," Kate said.

That confirmed it – they would be the ones getting up in the middle of the night to their own little bundle of joy soon enough. I wanted to congratulate them and give each a bone-crushing hug, but reality had settled in harshly.

It was moments like these that made me wish that I was alive for just one minute so that I could do to Beckett what he had done to me. The consequences meant nothing to me. He should suffer the way that I had suffered.

I knew that wasn't a possibility, either. Being dead and a literal ghost was the only thing that was.

"Yes," Will said. "Unless you don't like the name anymore. Then we can --"

"No," she chuckled softly. "I love it."

Will smiled and glanced at the page, then back at Kate. "What about girl's names?"

Kate was silent momentarily, almost as if she was considering all the names that she had thought of, or finding one that stuck out to her out of the many.

"Melissa," she said softly.

My heart soared – she could see me! Yet, she didn't seem confused when she said. It was a wistful greeting, if anything.

"Yeah?" I asked.

It took me a moment to realize Kate was not looking at me, nor was she speaking to me. She had intended to name her first born girl after me.

Tears sprang to my eyes. Out of all the things that Kate had done for me, nothing could compare to naming a daughter after me.

"Or Melrose, even," Kate continued. "Even if Mel did hate when I called her that."

Through the tears that began to leak from my eyes, I laughed. I despised being called Melrose. Kate had called me that nearly all through high school, and Jack called me it very little. I couldn't recall one time when Will called me it, thankfully.

"I think both are beautiful," Will said.

A peaceful silence fell over the room. From an outsider looking into just two of the lives that had been effected by my passing, I could see how different things were without me when an intimate conversation took place.

How did people always seem to carry on so easily, then?


	24. New Moon

Chapter Twenty-Four

New Moon

**This has not been beta-ed, so I'm incredibly sorry if any of this seems off in any way. I tried my hardest, haha.**

**Secondly, thank you so much for the two hundred reviews! Cake and ice cream for everyone.**

**Lastly, this is the second-to-the-last chapter. That will be the final chapter for this series. I'm ready to move on to other things. I just thought I would at least let you all know out of courtesy. I will leave long thank-you the end of next chapter.**

**And, no, I don't own the title of this chapter. My fellow Twilight fans do, though, haha.**

* * *

Early September had settled in. Summer had seemed to go in the blink of an eye. It seemed to Will that it was but a few days ago that Amy and Jack had moved to New York.

Jack had been at work Monday through Friday, leaving Amy with them. One would have thought the house would be quieter and a bit more peaceful, but the Turners quickly learned that that was not the case with a five-month-old little girl.

Will had seen the way Kate had taken care of Amy – Kate was ready to be a mother. Her tender instincts had taken over when Amy had cried, patting her back and soothing her. He could see the smile on Kate's face when he was the one taking care of Amy. They both knew they would be the ones having a child soon.

Children, actually.

Kate and Will had gone to the doctor's appointment, and he had confirmed that Kate was carrying twins. Neither were surprised – she had said that, from the beginning, she thought that they would have twins. Will was amazed that a woman could detect that.

It was odd for Will to look at his wife now – her jeans weren't fitting her anymore, and she was already beginning to show just a bit. He began to wonder how much Kate felt that she needed Melissa now. If Kate did feel that way, she was hiding it well, along with Jack.

Jack had been Jack – he had showed no sign of missing Melissa, although Will was sure that he was missing her. Regardless of whether the pain had dulled or intensified, he was sure that Jack thought about her each day. How could he not? _Will_ thought about her every day!

Jack had been his usual sarcastic, witty self, poking fun at the Turners and pestering them about the children's names. He had wanted the first born boy named Jack after the "incredible male, non-whelpish influence" he would have on their possible son(s).

That only merited Jack an unamused glare from a moody Kate.

Days had turned into nights. With nights, thoughts of the future came stronger. He could hear Amy crying at night and Jack getting up, usually going into the living room and soothing her, or giving her a bottle in the kitchen.

Will couldn't help but realize that that would be them very soon. He would have to be asking Jack for parenting advice. Surprisingly, Jack had turned out to be a decent father. Will had never doubted Jack's abilities, but, Jack Sparrow – a good father? That statement still seemed foreign to Will.

One mid-September night, Will had felt Kate next to him, awake. Her breathing was uneven, and, even through the dark of the late summer night, he knew that her green eyes were wide open. He was tired, himself, but sleep, for some reason, had failed him. His eyes were beginning to become sore from lack of sleep. Perhaps his wife's sleeplessness had an effect on him – she was usually the first to fall asleep.

"Will?" Kate said softly.

"Yes?" Will asked.

There was a long, almost frightened silence. Those sort of silences from her made him uneasy. He always thought bad news was on the horizon – of what, he couldn't begin to guess.

"I have to tell someone something," she said.

Why would Kate say something so nondescript and vague? Her wording didn't frighten him, but puzzled him, more than anything. What was she trying to say?

"What is it?" he asked.

Will couldn't help but wonder if he was the person Kate was talking about.

_No_, he assured himself, _that's not like her. If she wants to say something, she would tell me directly._

That did very little to ease him.

"It's something important," Kate said.

That didn't help at all! His heart began to quicken in his chest. Will could only imagine what it was she wanted to say.

"Someone trusted me with a secret, and that person wanted to tell someone that secret, but they never got the chance to."

Why must she have to say it so cryptically? He was beginning to be reassured that this vague description had nothing to do with him, but he was still confused.

"And I think it's time to share the secret with the person that it was meant for, finally," Kate continued. "I just don't know how they'll take it."

Will began to wonder who she could be talking about. Who, besides Jack, Melissa, and himself, would share a secret with Kate? Jack was not the kind to share a secret, and Will hadn't needed to share anything with her lately.

His heart skipped a beat. It was Melissa who had shared the secret with Kate.

That formed another question: What was Melissa hiding?

Will instantly had a feeling that Melissa's secret was about Jack. Kate had said that the secret was for someone – in this case, he had a strong intuition that it was Jack. Besides Kate, he was the only one that had been close to Melissa.

What sort of a secret could Melissa have been hiding about Jack, though?

"Do you think that that person would be able to look at the person who had originally kept the secret the same way?" he asked.

There were a few beats of silence before Kate said, "I don't know. I really don't know."

The answers to the questions seemed to get more and more cryptic.

"I'm scared to tell him," she said.

Him – it had to be Jack.

"It brings back a night I want to forget so badly."

A night to forget – the night Melissa died.

Will remembered that Melissa was going to tell Jack something the night before she died. After she would have come back for her run, she had intended to tell Jack something – and Kate had been the keeper of that secret.

What a burden for her.

"I think you know exactly what you should do," he murmured into her ear, trying to reassure her.

If it had something to do with Melissa needing to tell Jack something that she had never been given the chance to, Kate _had_ to be the one to do it. Will knew that she would do whatever was right – if she thought that Jack should know, Kate would tell him. Will was sure that Kate would tell Jack whatever needed to be said.

She nodded. "I just don't know why I'm scared to do it."

"You're in the person's shoes who wanted to tell that secret," he said softly. "You're feeling exactly what they would have been feeling if they could have said it."

There was a brief silence before Kate said, "She always was one half of me."

* * *

The guest bedroom was dark as I sat down next to Jack. He was asleep, his figure in the middle of the bed. I could scarcely see his figure. I supposed there was a new moon tonight. The only light that was provided was the orange glow of streetlights below and the soft red coming from the digital clock at the bedside – it was 11:24.

I looked to see Amy, asleep in her crib by the window. From a distance, I couldn't tell how much older she was. She was still small and in a crib – it couldn't have been that long since I last seen them.

I turned back to face Jack. Just looking at him, even through the little light that there was, brought back so many memories. His wittiness had driven me to the brink of insanity at times, but it was his attitude that I couldn't live without. He had a freeness about him that I loved. It was a freeness that I had never wanted to tame, and one that I knew that I never could. I had been satisfied that I couldn't. That was Jack – and I loved everything about him.

With a heavy heart, all I could do was look at him. I could say everything that I ever wanted to, but he would never hear it.

What was worse? Saying it and never having it be heard, or not saying it at all?

At least my conscience would be cleared.

"Hey," I said sheepishly. I felt silly talking to him. I knew that Jack couldn't hear me, I had so much to say. We would never be able to speak again; I didn't see the point in waiting for a time when I could.

"It's been a really long time."

I could feel a lump starting to constrict my throat. I told myself that I would not cry.

Then again, no one would be able to see me do so.

"I hope that you're taking care of Amy and she's not being a handful," I said awkwardly.

I was awkwardly talking about our daughter when I felt that the weight of the world was about to be crushed upon me if I didn't tell him what exactly what I was feeling?!

"I really miss you," I said, my throat getting even more tighter and tears forming in my eyes. "I miss your jokes and our stupid fights over nothing."

A sob came from me. That was the only time I wanted Jack to hear me cry -- I wanted to talk to him more than I had ever wanted anything before. All I had to have was one last conversation with him. I didn't care if I never saw him again, I just wanted to talk to him one more time.

The pent-up tears began to stream from my eyes, cascading down my cheeks like a waterfall. It took a while for me to place a time where I had cried so hard before.

Before I knew what I was doing, I said it.

"I love you, Jack."

I sniffed and wiped my tears away. All the while, my eyes remained on him. He hadn't stirred at all. It was still a mystery to me how he had heard nothing.

There was no rush of adrenaline when I had said those three words to him. Before I died, I had imagined that my heart would be pounding within my chest and adrenaline racing through my veins. Nothing.

I was, in every sense of the word, dead.

I longed to hear him say something, anything, back. "That's interestin'", even, I didn't care!

That nearly brought on the second round of tears.

_No,_ I chided. _You will_ not _cry._

"I just hope you actually get to hear that someday," I said softly.


	25. Sober

Chapter Twenty-Five

Sober

**Well, this is it: the final chapter! I hope that you all enjoy it!**

* * *

September 15 was supposed to be a wonderful day for Katherine Turner. Today marked her one year wedding anniversary. With a glance at the clock – 2:30 – Kate remembered that she and Melissa were in their hotel room about now. Kate had been nothing but a nervous wreck at the time, and couldn't help but wonder then what she had done. She had been a thousand miles away from home with her best friend and about to get married, and she had no idea what she was walking into.

Melissa had done _something_ to ease Kate's nerves. She wasn't sure what Melissa had done to do so. Then again, it was _Melissa_ – she was her best friend. Best friends just needed to be in the presence of the other to feel better. No words were needed to be exchanged, no eyes needed to be met, they just needed each other.

That was exactly how Kate felt at the moment. She felt utterly lost. Kate was two and a half months pregnant with twins (and showing quite quickly) and had no idea what to do next. Kate needed Melissa to send her some sort of manual. The twenty-five dollar parenting books were _not_ the right type of manuals! She was moody, she would want to cry over nothing, and she was tired of morning sickness, along with day-long nausea and fatigue. Kate longed to talk to Melissa about every high and low she was feeling. Kate still wasn't sure whether it was from mourning the loss of Melissa, or if it was a combination of the mood swings brought on when one was with child, or a combination of the two, that made her feel like she was losing some sort of invisible, yet hellish battle.

September 15 had turned into a bittersweet day for Katherine Turner. It was three months ago that Lord Cutler Beckett had killed Melissa Lewes. Kate thought about the few days before and after the death every day. It was always something different – some days it was the day that she was reunited with Melissa (just days before she died), others it was the closed coffin at the funeral. If she closed her eyes, it almost felt like she was back in that stony, haunting church in the first row, looking at the closed casket. Kate had thought that Melissa was playing some cruel joke, that she would pop out of the casket at any moment and say that she had fooled them all.

In a way, Kate was still waiting for Melissa to walk through the door. Kate knew that Melissa was gone at the same time, though.

While Amy was down for her nap that day and Will was out getting a few things at the store (she had suspected that was a lie and he felt they needed time alone), she and Jack were sitting in the living room. Kate was flipping through a tabloid while Jack was watching a baseball game.

Kate saw something she hadn't thought about in months: three blue-green stars tattooed on an actress's shoulder.

She remembered how badly she wanted that tattoo before. It's true meaning had always been love, honor, and trust, not knowing that she could do better, like she had once said to Jack. She remembered that Jack had agreed (whether it was jokingly, she wasn't sure) to get a tattoo with her all those months ago. He said he would get a skull-and-crossbones mark.

Something inside of Kate told her that today was the day to tell Jack. Even Melissa would never have waited three months to tell him what she had intended to.

Her mouth began to get dry and her heartbeat quickened. How would Jack take it? Would he just stare at her blankly and perhaps pop out a "that's interesting"?

She almost felt like she was Melissa delivering the news.

* * *

Jack was fully aware of today being September 15. He knew the day's significance all too well – it had been three months since anyone saw Melissa. He knew this was no longer an awful nightmare, but a harsh, stinging reality: he was a single father with his motherless, six-month-old daughter.

How would he explain to Amy one day that her mother had been killed by a jealous man? What would Jack say to her when she asked why the Turner children had a mother, but she didn't?

He knew that raising a child by himself would be difficult – a gross understatement. Melissa was the one meant to raise Amy. Bugger, if one of them moved out of the rental they had together, Melissa would bring the child with her. Of course, he would visit, but she was the one meant to play the main parental role.

The final time he saw her was a memory that constantly haunted him. Would he have said something different if he knew that was the last time he would ever be seeing her? He wasn't sure.

One thing he would have done differently, though, was not have her go on that run and keep her in the house, regardless of what he had to do to keep her there.

That was the past, though. One could do nothing to change it. All one could do was reflect on it, spot the fatal mistake, and try to move on with their life.

Like most things, that was much easier said than done.

He had tried to follow a baseball game, but failed. His mind was fixated on Melissa today. He knew that it was the three-month mark of her death – perhaps that was why. Part of him felt especially incomplete today.

He felt like such a whelp for admitting it to himself. Why was he feeling so incomplete _now_? It had been three months. He hadn't felt this way since the first days after her death.

Bloody emotions.

"Remember this?" Kate asked.

He was thankful for the interruption.

Kate was looking at a magazine. In it, it had an actress with long, blond hair in a strapless dress. On her right shoulder were three small stars in blue-green ink. Those looked familiar to him. Seeing the stars made him remember the warm Caribbean nights on the ocean on the decks of the _Black Pearl_.

He doubted that this had anything to do with the simpler, freer life he yearned for, though.

"No, I do not, love," Jack replied.

"I wanted this tattoo," she said.

Now he remembered – she had shown him the same design a year ago. It had symbolized knowing that she could do better – or love, honor, and trust.

"I still do, actually," Kate continued. "You promised you'd come with me when I get it."

Jack remembered the promise he had made all those months ago. He doubted that she would actually gather the courage to have something on her for the rest of her life, though.

"'N' 'oldin' yer 'and while the needle pricks ya is in order still, eh?" Jack joked.

"Yeah," Kate said, a ghost of a chuckle in her voice. "You promised that you would get something with me, though. A skull-and-crossbones mark."

He would be labeled what he was (again). It didn't bother him in the slightest to do so. He could take a needle.

The tattoo would secretly remind him of Melissa, unbeknownst to Kate. She had called him "pirate" countless times.

"That I did," Jack said. "I'll get one if you get one."

She smirked. "I'll get one if you get one."

"Then we're getting one," Jack said, returning the smirk.

Kate's gaze remained on the picture for a few moments before their eyes met.

"The tattoo reminds me of Melissa," she said. "Love, honor, and trust. I loved her, I trusted her, and now I'm going to do everything I can to honor her."

It actually was a rather sweet thing to do, Kate's devotion to Melissa.

"'N' getting a permanent mark o' three stars constitutes all three o' those things to Mel?" he teased.

"It does," Kate said, a small smile on her lips.

He wondered if just he could get his tattoo today. Or would Kate want to get her first with him? She was the sort of person that would impulsively get it the one year mark of Melissa's death.

On the plus side, he had nine months to figure out his tattoo, he figured.

"She loved you, you know," Kate said, looking him in the eye.

"I'm well aware of that, love," Jack said, annoyed at her nostalgia. He preferred to think of Melissa on his own time, not talk about her with others.

"No," Kate said. "I mean... she _loved_ you."

Yes, Jack knew that Melissa had loved him. She had stopped saying it after a while. Perhaps she had given up on him or had just fallen out of whatever womanly love she was in with him. Either way, it didn't matter – he had never loved her in the first place. He felt a very strong attraction to her that children could have perceived as love. Neither of them were children, though, and he was sure Melissa knew that he had never loved her.

That wasn't to say he had never cared for her. He did. Jack looked out for her and considered her a close friend, which was most likely why he was still trying to sort out her death.

The room had been quiet for several long, long moments. He was puzzled as to why Kate was making such a fuss over saying that Melissa loved him.

"That's what she meant to say to you after the run," Kate said.

Jack Sparrow was genuinely shocked. Melissa Lewes had still loved him after all this time? Everything made perfect sense now – why Amy had his last name, why she had hardly spoken to him her last week (most likely festering how to tell him), and why she refused to see Beckett.

He was speechless, but somehow managed to find his voice.

"Love as in the way a woman loves a man, or love as in the way you 'n' Mel loved each other?" he asked.

"Love as in the way she's always loved you."

He was still speechless. Completely and utterly speechless.

"How did you find out?" he asked.

"She told me three days before she died." She paused briefly. "Everyone had a burden to bear in her death. Mine happened to be that."

His burdens? Jack would be parenting Amy by himself and knowing how her mother died. He would have to decide when to tell Amy about Melissa.

The most sudden and blatant one at the moment was finding out Melissa's secret too late.

"That we do," Jack agreed.

Kate rested her head on his shoulder. He could feel her heart beating like a drum within her chest. Jack was surprised she was that nervous (or was her heart beating that fast out of adrenaline?).

Jack wondered if Kate and Will were considering naming their child after Melissa. It wouldn't surprise him if Melissa or Melrose Turner was an addition to the family in a few months. He hoped that would be the case. That was more of an honor than any tattoo.

He felt a few small teardrops fall onto his shoulder. Kate was silent, her body still. All he could feel was the beating of her heart and her tears landing on him.

Nothing needed to be said. They were slowly, over the past three months, becoming sober from the death of Melissa.

That was when Jack realized something. Kate needed him, and Jack needed her.

More than anyone, though, Jack Sparrow would always need Melissa Rose Lewes.

* * *

**Thank you all so much for reading! It means so much to be. I sincerely hope that you all enjoyed the series!**

**Even if you've never said anything, I would love it if you just left a word or two in a review!**

**I'd like to give a special thanks to everyone that reviewed, and a very special thank you to my beta, Sabsz!**


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